LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


CLASSJLJ  BOOK  VT  Oo 

\ffl7k  KATONAH 


A  UHlage  Improvement 

SOCIETY. 


MEN  AND  EVENTS  OF 
FORTY  YEARS 


Autobiographical  T^eminiscences  of  an  active  career 
from  1850  to  1890 


BY   THE    LATE 

JOSIAH   BUSNELL  GRINNELL 


WITH    INTRODUCTION    BY 

PROF.  HENRY  W.  PARKER,  D.  D. 


BOSTON 

D     LOTHROP    COMPANY 

WASHINGTON     STREET    OPPOSITE    BROMFIELD 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIPCHOfftS 
DAVIS 


COPYRIGHT,  1891, 

BY 
D.    LOTHROP  COMPANY. 


PREFACE. 


BY  PROF.  HENRY  W.  PARKER,  D.D. 


THE  author  of  this  volume  lived  to  complete  the  book,  except 
.  the  preface,  which  has  been  assigned  to  me,  who  knew  and  loved 
*»  him  for  nearly  half  a  century.     Much  of  the  volume  was  written 
^in  Mr.  GrinnelPs  last  days,  in  the  midst  of  manifold  business  and 
while  suffering  from   disease  —  sometimes    in   severe   pain   while 
dictating  to   an   amanuensis.      Still,  it  is  one  of  those  valuable 
books  of  reminiscence   (probably  the  more  photographic  because 
rapid  and  free  in  expression),  of  which  there  are  too  few  in  the 
past,  and  which  give  a  better  insight  into  events  and  men  than 
formal  history  —  in  this  case,  both  state  and  national.     How  few 
en,  of  wide  acquaintanceship  and  action,  appreciate  the  future 
value  of  their  recollections,  not  prized  by  them  for  the  same  reason 
that  posterity  would  highly  prize  the  story,  namely,  the  narrator's 
*  familiarity  with  the  facts.     I  once  urged  upon  a  septuagenarian, 
ho  could  well  say  pars  fui  of  early  western  New  York,  and  of 
much  of  New  England  in  the  first  half  of  this  century,  the  duty  of 
X  talking  out  his  reminiscences  on  paper ;  but  he  persisted  rather  in 
compiling  a  useless  book  on  the  French  Revolution,  which,  natu 
rally  enough,  had  made  as  hearsay  a  profound  impression  on  him 
in  his  boyhood. 

To  look  through  the  eyes  of  Mr.  Grinnell's  memory  in  this  book 
is  to  behold  a  great  panorama  of  events  and  men,  in  the  most  inter 
esting  stages  of  our  progress — the  founding  of  States  and  the 
^upholding  of  the  Union  and  Freedom.  To  look  into  his  eyes,  as 
one  can  almost  do  in  reading  his  pages,  is  to  look  into  a  large, 
noble  nature  of  marvellous  activities,  of  remarkable  individuality ; 


^ 

;vi 

mi 
.  -«i 


viii  PEE  FACE. 

and  this  alone  renders  the  book  a  blessing  to  the  youthful  who 
may  be  inspired  by  his  energetic  and  lofty  example. 

A  full  appreciation  of  Mr.  Grinnell's  chapters,  in  the  minds  of 
those  who  knew  him,  carries  with  it  a  vivid  impression  of  his 
remarkable  personal  qualities.  The  reverse  of  tall,  of  very  solid 
build,  with  a  short,  strong  neck  and  fearless  temperament,  all 
his  sturdy  fighting  endowment  took  the  direction  of  indomitable 
energy  in  enterprise  and  of  intrepid  assertion  of  everything  right 
and  good ;  and  the  always  overflowing  surplus  of  his  vital  energy 
took  the  shape  of  superabounding  good  nature.  His  manner  was 
the  freest  and  cheeriest  to  all  persons,  on  all  occasions ;  his  plans 
and  opinions,  of  the  largest  pattern ;  his  disposition,  utterly  devoid 
of  selfishness  and  any  trace  of  meanness ;  his  feeling,  so  bright  and 
hopeful  as  to  exclude  the  thought  of  anything  dark  in  the  uni 
verse,  except  it  might  be  present  injustice  to  be  righted,  or  want 
and  suffering  to  be  relieved.  Though  not  a  theoretical,  he  was  a 
practical  communist,  holding  every  hour  and  power  and  possession 
ready  for  the  common  good.  Indeed,  he  must  have  struck  every 
thoughtful  acquaintance  as  a  rare,  even  unexampled,  phenomenon 
of  exhaustless  activity  and  generosity.  Of  course,  with  such  a 
nature  he  was  frank,  never  stinting  expression  of  his  thought  and 
feeling,  in  any  presence  whatsoever ;  and  so  frank  that  sometimes, 
as  in  this  book,  his  felicitation  over  all  persons,  all  things,  when  it 
included  himself  might  seem  like  egotism,  whereas  he  most  cer 
tainly  held  a  modest  opinion  of  himself  and  his  deeds.  In  fact, 
he  lived  outside  of  himself  in  enterprises,  in  beneficence,  and  in  a 
singularly  worshipful  regard  toward  men  justly  eminent,  as  shown 
by  much  of  eulogistic  tone  in  this  book. 

Some  of  the  passages,  quoted  from  himself  in  the  following 
pages,  give  some  hint  of  his  pithy  style,  his  happy  humor,  and  his 
truly  poetic  flights,  as  an  extemporaneous  speaker  —  such  that  he 
was  sent  for  or  called  upon  on  all  occasions,  never  failing  to  fulfill 
expectation.  The  most  of  the  pages  give  little  impression  of  all 
this,  written  as  they  were  in  intervals  snatched  from  business, 
without  the  stimulus  of  occasion  and  audience  ;  and  the  very 
nature  of  the  work,  together  with  advancing  disease,  lending  the 
sober  coloring  of  retrospect,  combined  with  prospect  of  life's  ter 
mination.  Genius  of  every  kind,  and  especially  the  literary,  is 
simply  a  keen  perception  of  the  subtile  or  manifold  inter-relations 
of  things,  with  daring  and  persistence  in  embodying  the  conse- 


PREFACE.  ix 

quent  conceptions ;  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  Mr.  Grinnell 
was  a  genius,  and  would  have  made  his  mark  as  an  author,  if  he 
had  devoted  time  and  elaboration  to  literary  work.  The  only  man, 
so  far  as  my  limited  knowledge  goes,  who  distinctly  recognized 
this,  was  Rev.  H.  Melville  Tenney,  his  last  pastor,  who  in  the 
funeral  address,  said,  "He  was  of  an  essentially  poetic  tempera 
ment  .  .  .  He  caught  the  ideal  in  every  situation  .  .  . 
This  element  characterized  his  deeds,  his  writings  and  his  public 
addresses.  His  thoughts,  tinged  with  poetic  glow,  rushed  out  into 
expression,  sometimes  faster  than  logic  could  arrange  them,  and 
sometimes  they  seemed  to  mingle  in  inextricable  confusion,  but 
almost  invariably  emerged  in  some  telling  climax  that  justified  all 
that  had  gone  before.  There  was  a  real  Carlylian  strength  in  his 
style  when  at  his  best." 

One  period  of  Mr.  Grinnell's  early  life,  otherwise  overlooked, 
was  touched  upon  by  Ex-President  G.  F.  Magoun,  D.  D.,  on  the 
same  funeral  occasion.  "In  the  employ  of  the  American  Tract 
Society,  he  was  the  most  useful  man  ever  engaged  by  that  great 
truth-distributing  organization.  He  could  see  more  people  and  say 
more  in  a  day  than  any  man  I  ever  knew.  He  was  a  herald  of 
light  and  truth  to  the  early  villages  of  Iowa  and  Wisconsin.77 

Besides  being  the  founder  of  several  towns  (including  Chapin, 
Iowa,  named  after  his  wife's  family),  and  both  founder  and  presi 
dent  of  a  university  and  of  two  banks,  and  other  institutions,  Mr. 
Grinnell  held  the  following  official  civil  appointments :  Special 
Agent  of  the  Post  Office  Department  for  the  North-west — by 
President  Lincoln ;  Arbitrator  in  adjustment  of  Wool  Schedules 
under  the  tariff  law  —  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury;  Agent 
to  report  on  Animal  Industry  in  the  United  States  —  by  the  Com 
missioner  of  Agriculture.  The  following  offices  he  held  by  popular 
election:  State  Senator,  1856,  on  a  platform  of  Free  Schools,  no 
saloons,  and  no  extension  of  Slavery ;  Representative  in  Congress 
in  1862,  and  re-elected  in  1864,  by  6,000  majority,  but  declined  to 
canvass  for  a  third  term.  The  following  were  honorary  appoint 
ments:  Referee  in  the  Treaty  purchase  of  the  Cherokee  Neutral 
Lands,  and  as  such  conferring  with  United  States  Senators  and 
the  President;  Receiver  of  the  Central  Railroad  of  Iowa,  and  act 
ing  Superintendent,  and  more  than  vindicated  in  his  management 
by  the  Courts  and  the  Press;  selection  by  the  National  Cattle 
Association  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Pleuropneumonia  to 


x  PREFACE. 

draft  the  Bill  passed  by  Congress,  affecting  millions  of  property  by 
its  enactment.  Add  to  these,  numerous  presidencies  and  other 
offices  in  State  and  district  associations,  directorships  of  railroads, 
etc. 

From  a  long  editorial  on  his  life  and  work,  in  the  Iowa  State 
Register,  of  Des  Moines,  the  ensuing  extracts  may  be  made  as  indi 
cating  the  great  public  estimation  in  which  he  was  held,  far  and 
wide: 

"  Mr.  Grinnell's  life  record  would  be  a  history  of  Iowa.  He  was  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  noble  pioneers  who  settled  in  the  state  within  the  first  decade  of 
statehood,  and  his  unceasing  efforts  have  done  more  to  develop  the  central  portion 
of  the  state  than  has  been  accomplished  by  any  other  citizen. 

****** 

"It  is  difficult  to  write  of  Mr.  Grinnell  in  a  brief  article.  His  splendid  life 
record  has  been  a  continuous  labor  of  love  for  his  State  and  Nation.  He  was  a 
close  student,  a  constant  reader,  a  deep  thinker  and  one  of  the  most  condensive 
writers  and  speakers  of  his  time.  His  short,  vigorous  and  expressive  sentences 
always  betokened  his  conscientiousness,  fidelity  to  principle  and  unswerving  integ 
rity.  Of  a  progressive  mould  he  was  continually  striving  for  improved  methods 
and  better  regulations  in  all  the  affairs  of  life  No  state  boundaries  could  encom 
pass  his  good  work.  He  has  been  a  prominent  and  zealous  laborer  in  the  business, 
church,  educational,  temperance  and  political  affairs  of  the  State  and  Nation,  and 
had  gained  the  personal  acquaintance  and  respect  of  more  of  the  leading  men  of 
the  past  forty  years  than  any  man  who  has  lived  continuously  in  Iowa  during  the 
period  named.  He  had  a  personal  acquaintance  with  Wendell  Phillips,  Charles 
Suinner,  Thad.  Stevens,  Horace  Greeley,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  John  Brown  and 
nearly  all  the  other  noted  statesmen,  scholars,  ministers  and  patriots  of  his  time, 
and  was  popular  with  all  of  them,  as  he  has  always  been  with  all  good  people. 
****** 

"  He  was  engaged  for  several  years  in  compiling  reminiscences  of  the  past  forty 
years.  His  notes,  library  and  memory  were  all  stored  with  data  gathered  by  him 
self,  and  we  understand  that  he  completed  his  book,  or  nearly  completed  it,  before 
he  was  compelled  to  cease  his  labors,  by  the  disease  that  finally  conquered  the 
spirit  that  never  acknowledged  defeat  from  any  other  source.  This  history  will  be 
invaluable  to  all  coming  generations  of  this  state  as  he  has  included  Iowa  men  and 
times  in  his  reminiscences  of  the  past  four  decades. 

****** 

"  After  Emancipation,  the  good  heart  of  Mr.  Grinnell  took  up  the  work  of  edu 
cation  for  the  negro,  as  actively  as  he  had  participated  in  the  struggle  for  freedom. 
To  the  black  race  he  was  the  foremost  and  most  conspicuous  friend  and  cham 
pion  in  Iowa.  When  this  state,  first  of  all  in  the  Union,  enfranchised  the  negro  in 
1868,  he  was  the  leader  of  it  all,  and  made  every  stump  eloquent  with  his  appeals 
for  justice  to  the  oppressed  race.  Deep  in  the  heart  of  the  black  men  always  will 
live  the  memory  of  Mr.  Grinnell. 

"Mr.  Grinnell's  life  began  in  Vermont  in  1821,  and  closed  in  Iowa  in  1891. 
Between  the  cradle  at  New  Haven,  Vt.,  and  the  deathbed  at  Grinnell  are  seventy 
long  years  of  high  thinking  and  noble  living — a  pilgrimage  that  reads  like  the 
scriptural  accounts  of  the  lives  of  the  elect  who  walked  with  God  and  who  in  their 
hearts  carried  the  consciousness  of  a  divinely  appointed  mission  on  earth.  The 
two  facts  that  stand  out  most  prominently  in  the  earthly  pilgrimage  of  this 


PREFACE.  xi 

divinely  gifted  man  were  his  devotion  to  truth  and  his  love  of  freedom.  Fearless 
because  deeply  conscious  that  he  was  right  and  had  truth  and  justice  on  his  side, 
he  remained  until  the  great  struggle  was  over,  a  leader  in  the  ranks  of  anti-slavery 
and  pro-Union  thinkers  and  workers.  Of  the  end  he  never  despaired.  The  dark 
days  came,  the  clouds  lowered,  human  hearts  were  burdened  with  almost  more 
than  human  strength  could  bear,  God  and  victory  seemed  to  hesitate  between  the 
North  and  the  South,  the  Right  and  Wrong  —  but  here  was  one  strong  man, 
whose  hope  dimmed  not,  whose  faith  faltered  not,  and  whose  courage  forsook  him 
not. 

"  Distinguished  in  public  life,  Mr.  Grinnell  was  loved  in  private  life.  He  was 
a  man  of  the  home  before  he  was  a  man  of  the  rostrum,  the  forum  or  the  school. 
With  him  the  home  was  the  beginning  of  all  that  is  noble  and  all  that  is  pure.  It 
was  with  him  the  source  of  personal  strength  and  National  security.  He  loved  his 
own  home.  He  loved  the  wife  of  his  heart  who  tenderly  consecrated  there  her  life. 
He  loved  his  children  with  the  warmth  of  a  great  heart.  This  man's  life,  so  fear 
less  in  the  discussion  of  public  questions,  so  brave  always,  was  as  tender  and  as 
gracious  as  a  woman's  in  his  own  home.  Outside  of  the  love  of  his  family  he  was 
loved  by  thousands.  He  had  troops  of  friends  and  never  were  friends  more  loyal 
to  any  man.  He  held  them  in  the  grasp  of  his  strong  love,  and  as  he  iieared  life's 
end  they  grew  nearer  and  dearer  to  him.  They  thought  of  him  and  he  thought  of 
them.  They  inquired  more  and  more  earnestly  after  him  as  he  grew  weaker  and 
weaker,  and  from  a  deeper  depth  of  gratitude  sent  back  to  them  his  fervent,  '  God 
bless  you  all '. 

"  Mr.  Grinnell,  by  residence  belonged  to  Grinnell,  by  faith  to  the  Congrega 
tional  Church  and  by  politics  to  the  Republican  party,  but  in  a  wider,  truer  sense 
he  belonged  to  no  city,  no  sect  and  no  party  —  but  to  the  people,  to  the  state  and  to 
the  cause  of  the  greatest  good  for  all  men.  His  good  will,  sympathy  and  assistance 
were  denied  to  no  good  cause.  He  investigated  all  subjects  of  human  thought.  He 
labored  in  all  fields  of  human  endeavor.  And  whatever  he  espoused,  whatever  he 
touched,  he  enriched  with  the  love  of  a  warm  heart  and  the  genius  of  a  determined 
spirit  striving  for  success.  Poor,  struggling,  full  of  hope,  full  of  ambition  in  his 
youth ;  active,  pushing,  energetic,  enterprising,  determined  in  the  prime  of  life ;  in 
old  age  an  oracle,  and  in  death  mourned  and  regretted  —  such  are  the  life  and 
death  of  Iowa's  noble  pioneer  and  honored  citizen,  who  lies  awaiting  the  last  sad 
rites,  at  his  old  home  in  Grinnell." 

Mr.  Grinnell  died  of  throat  disease,  complicated  with  asthma, 
March  31,  1891,  at  his  home,  fronting  the  park  in  Grinnell.  The 
eloquent  tributes  paid  to  him  by  his  neighbors  and  the  western 
Press  would  make  a  volume;  some  extracts  are  given  in  an 
Appendix.  He  was  buried  with  the  heartfelt  mourning  of  the 
whole  community. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

Birthplace — Ancestry  —  Family  Pioneers  —  Childhood  —  The  Old 
Church  and  Minister — Youthful  Episodes — The  Boy  School 
master  —  The  Harrison  Campaign. 

CHAPTEK   II. 

A  Student  —  Moot  Courts  —  First  Visit  to  New  York  —  Notable 
Events  and  Persons  of  Half  a  Century  Ago —  Oneida  Institute  — 
Picture  of  Reformers  and  Orators,  Gerritt  Smith,  Alvin  Stewart, 
President  Beriah  Green. 

CHAPTER   III. 

False  Theories —  Club  Life  —  Westward,  ho  ! —  Wisconsin  Prairies — 
Codding,  the  Abolition  Orator — The  Home  of  the  Badger — 
A  Volume — A  Return  East — A  Student  in  Auburn  Theological 
Seminary  —  First  Call  to  Preach  —  Union  Village,  New  York  — 
My  Mother's  Death. 

CHAPTER    IV. 

Washington  Society  —  Its  Intolerance  —  The  new  Congregational 
Church  —  A  Liberal  Club  —  Distinguished  Reformers  —  Dr. 
Bailey's  National  Era  —  Radical  Legislators. 

CHAPTER  V. 

Garrison — Whittier — Simms,  the  Fugitive — U.  S.  Marshal  Dev- 
cns — Caleb  Gushing  —  Henry  Wilson  —  Anson  P.  Burlingame 
—  Theodore  Parker. 


xiv  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

"  Go  West,  Young  Man,  Go  West7' — Out-door  Speaking  in  New 
York  —  Failure  of  Voice  —  Horace  Greeley's  Advice — Copy  of 
Greeley's  Letter —  Proposed  Colony — Turned  from  Missouri  by 
Slavery — Protege  of  Henry  Farnam — Railway  Magnate  — 
Fortunate  Location  of  the  City  of  Grinnell. 

CHAPTER   VII. 

Prohibition  of  Saloons — Pioneering  Incidents  —  Rattlesnake  Ser 
mon —  Our  Mail  Service — First  Law  Suit  —  The  Long  Ifome  — 
Foibles  of  an  Enthusiast — First  Fourth  of  July  —  First  Ceme 
tery  Burial  —  A  Bell  on  the  Prairie — The  Church. 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

State  Senator — Free  School  Law — Congressional  Canvass  —  How 
I  became  a  Lawyer. 

CHAPTER   IX. 

The  War  Congress,  1863-5  —  A  Scat  Episode — Wilson,  Kasson, 
Price,  Allison,  Hubbard,  E.  C.  Ingersoll,  Lovejoy,  Henry  Winter 
Davis,  Oakes  Ames,  President  Hayes,  President  Garfield,  Col- 
fax,  Blaine  and  others — The  Opposition  Leaders,  Hendricks, 
Voorhees,  Brooks,  Wood,  Cox,  etc.  —  War  Days  at  Home. 

CHAPTER  X. 

Thirty-ninth  Congress,  1865-7 — Financial  Problems — Red  Tape — 
Whiskey  Tax — The  Thirteenth  Amendment — Reconstruction — 
Review  of  the  Times  —  The  Press  Reporters. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

A  Personal  Assault  —  Freedman's  Bureau  the  Occasion  with  the 
Apostasy  of  Andrew  Johnson — James  F.  Wilson — Freedom  of 
Speech — General  Rousseau  reprimanded  by  the  House  —  His 
Death. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  XV 

CHAPTER   XII. 

Lincoln's  War  Cabinet — Salmon  P.  Chase — Edwin  M.  Stanton — 
William  H.  Seward —  General  and  President  Grant. 

CHAPTER   XIII. 

Thaddeus  Stevens — Schuyler  Coif  ax  —  John  A.  Logan  —  Gratz 
Brown  —  David  Davis — Henry  S.  Foote — Jefferson  Davis — 
Gen.  W infield  Scott — Henry  Clay  —  Daniel  Webster. 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

Our  Notable  Guests — Wendell  Phillips — John  Brown — Horace 
Greeley — Henry  Ward  Beecher. 

CHAPTER   XV. 

Some  People  I  have  met  —  John  G.  Saxe — George  H.  Corliss — 
Alpheus  Hardy — Arthur  Sherburne  Hardy  —  Father  Clark- 
son —  W.  F.  Story — Edgar  W.  Nye  —  Joseph  Cook  —  John  B. 
Gough  —  Robert  G.  Ingersoll. 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

Iowa  and  lowans — Col.  S.  H.  M.  Byers,  our  War  Historian  — 
Charles  Aldrich  —  D.  N.  Richardson — Hon.  Ezekiel  Clark  — 
John  L.  Coffin  —  Generals  James  B.  Weaver,  N.  B.  Baker,  John 
M.  Corse,  Samuel  R.  Curtis,  G.  M.  Dodge,  J.  M.  Crocker  and 
William  W.  Belknap — Governors  Grimes,  Kirkwood,  Stone, 
Merrill,  Carpenter,  Gear,  Sherman  and  Larrabee — Judges 
Wright,  Nourse,  Miller,  Dillon,  Love  and  McCrary  —  Hons. 
Graves,  Moninger,  Howell  and  McDill  —  Henry  Clay  Dean. 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

Indians —  The  Sacs  and  Foxes  in  Iowa —  The  Friend  of  the  Indians, 
John  L.  Davenport — Indians  and  the  Cattle  Husbandry — The 
True  Policy  of  the  Nation  toward  its  Wards. 

CHAPTER   XVIII. 

The  Prohibition  Temperance  Issue — Skirmish  Line  Demonstrations 
—  The   Political    Status  —  Prohibition   Party — An   Address  — 
The  Iowa  Churches —  George  C.  Haddock  —  Laws  of  Heredity — 
Revenue  from  Whiskey. 


xvi  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE   XIX. 

Railroads — Personal  Work- —  Central  Railroad  of  Iowa — Receiver 
ship  and  Superintendence  —  Malicious  Litigation — Vindication. 

CHAPTER  XX. 

Agricultural  Affairs —  Wool-Grower 's  Association  —  National  Dairy 
men's  Fair  —  District  Fair  of  1859  —  Fine  Stock  Breeders' 
Society — Commissioner  on  Pleuro-pneumonia  among  Cattle  — 
State  Horticultural  Society — American  Agricultural  Associa 
tion  —  State  Fair  of  1890  —  Arboriculture  —  Fences  —  Protective 
Tariff. 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

Grinnell  University  and  Iowa  College — Their  building — Progress 
— Fire — Tornado  Benefactors  —  Tribute  to  their  Memory — 
Other  Benefactors  —  Use  of  Trust  Funds. 

CHAPTER   XXII. 

The  Tornado  of  1882  —  Descriptive  Incidents  —  Relation  to  the 
Town  —  Visit  to  Princely  Givers  —  Personals. 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Historical  Address  at  New  Haven,  Vt.,  1887  —  Distinguished  Ver- 
monters  —  Iowa  Vermont  and  New  England  Associations  — 
Eulogy  on  Senator  Solomon  Foote  —  Shorter  Catechism. 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

The  Cherokee  Neutral  Land  Purchase — Emigrant  Aid  Company  — 
Vindication  of  Secretary  James  Harlan — James  F.  Joy — First 
Bridge  across  the  Missouri — A  Texas  Overland  Trip — Journey 
to  Mexico. 

CHAPTER   XXV. 

Grinnell  Quarter  Centennial  Celebration  — Silver  Wedding — A  Ser 
mon  on  Sermons — The  Home  Library  —  Tribute  to  a  Life's 
Companion  —  Money  Making —  Words  to  Children  and  Grand 
children —  Memorial  of  Faith. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  MEN  AND   EVENTS 
OF  FORTY  YEARS. 

CHAPTER  I. 

Birthplace — Ancestry  —  Family  Pioneers  —  Childhood  —  The  Old 
Church  and  Minister — Youthful  Episodes — The  Boy  School 
master —  The  Harrison  Campaign. 

I  KNEW  the  fortune,  if  it  might  so  be  counted,  of  rural  life  and 
humble  poverty.  The  sorrows  of  orphanage  were  mine,  but  from 
the  dissipations  and  perils  of  youth  in  cities  I  had  a  happy 
exemption.  My  claim  as  a  loyal  Verm  outer  has  ever  been 
unquestioned,  and  I  refer  to  my  oration  in  New  Haven,  after 
nearly  a  half  century  of  absence,  while  speaking  in  the  old  church 
in  the  presence  of  veterans,  friends  of  my  parents,  and  the  later 
generations,  as  to  the  minister  who  moulded  the  people,  and  the 
rude  but  virtuous  life  of  the  pioneers. 

My  father's  name  was  Myron,  the  eldest  son  of  Reuben  Grin- 
nell,  whom  I  introduce  later.  I  was  born  in  New  Haven,  Vermont, 
on  the  22d  of  December,  1821,  Forefather's  day.  My  father,  as 
the  orator  of  the  day,  was  addressing  a  crowd  of  grown-up  pil 
grims,  in  the  church,  at  that  hour,  rather  than  greeting  the  arrival 
of  myself,  a  young  pilgrim. 

Josiah  was  the  name  given  me,  in  honor  of  a  noted  clergyman 
of  the  town,  Josiah  Hopkins,  while  the  second  name,  Bushnell, 
was  said  to  be  jointly  for  the  Reverend  Jedediah  Bushnell,  of 
Cornwall,  and  (that  the  youth  thus  heavily  laden  with  honor  might 
be  inclined  to  the  ministerial  vocation)  the  famous  Horace  Bush 
nell,  of  Hartford,  a  leader  of  progressive  theology,  honored  by  a 
public  park  and  a  monument.  Then,  Hon.  Campbell  Bushnell,  a 
lawyer  of  fame,  ever  claimed  that  I  was  named  for  him,  also,  by 


2  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEAES. 

his  next  friend,  my  father,  which  is  confirmed  by  a  correspond 
ence;  and  if  there  were  wanting  an  apology  for  myself,  a  humble 
actor  in  the  role  of  the  ministerial  and  legal  professions,  I  might 
find  it  both  in  the  names  borne  and  honorable  associations  of 
friendship  and  blood. 

Grinnell  is  a  reminder  of  Huguenot  origin,  and  an  ancestry  rich 
in  traditions  of  history,  and  of  men  tried  and  true  in  the  dark 
hours  of  religious  persecutions  —  men  with  iron  in  their  blood.  In 
peace,  their  children  were  men  of  affairs.  They  could  scale  mount 
ains,  navigate  seas,  and  must  be  classed  with  the  great  reformers, 
without  "principles  for  sale"  or  religious  convictions  to  barter. 
It  is  the  common  remark  of  those  who  have  studied  our  genealog 
ical  tree  that  there  has  never  been  one  of  the  name  convicted  of  an 
infamous  offense,  which  opinion  I  have  no  occasion  to  discredit, 
however  indifferent  many  of  the  name  may  have  been  to  their 
blood,  and  a  fortunate  history  and  environment. 

Grinnelle,  in  the  original  French,  became  the  same  name  with 
out  the  terminal  "e  "  or  with  one  less  "1,"  and  abbreviated  by  the 
loss  of  an  "n";  thus  arose  the  variations  of  a  name  from  one  root, 
being  many  branches  from  the  same  trunk.  There  was  a  family 
"  Coat  of  Arms.7'  I  only  look  at  it,  but  I  do  not  presume  to  wear 
it,  as  I  think  our  children  will  not.  I  do  not  forget  the  more  than 
traditional  honor  of  the  family.  Grenelle  Spring,  in  Paris,  so 
noted,  was  once  in  their  possession,  and  is  still  known  for  its 
medicinal  value  and  historic  surroundings. 

It  is  no  idle  boast  that  our  ancestors  were  real  Huguenots. 
Their  faith  and  manhood  were  tested  on  the  revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes,  in  1685.  The  issue  was  sharp  —  the  renunciation 
of  their  Protestant  faith,  or  the  alternative  of  a  bloody  strife  and 
expatriation  in  poverty.  They  chose  a  peaceful  course,  and  the 
chronicles  of  the  time  give  their  exit  to  a  home  on  the  chalky  cliffs 
of  Cardiff,  Wales,  leaving  parks  and  gardens  to  their  intolerant 
foes.  Here,  for  twenty-five  years,  enterprise  and  sturdy  manhood 
were  blended  with  patriotism  and  religion.  Then  the  family  was 
lured  into  the  migratory  tide  across  the  oceanj  where  they  found  a 
rude  home  at  Little  Compton,  Rhode  Island,  in  1710.  Their  early 
shelter,  a  stone  house,  from  which  went  forth  kindred  of  various 
tastes  and  ambitions,  is  still  standing.  The  late  Moses  H.  Grin 
nell,  some  thirty  years  ago  on  the  high  wave  of  prosperity,  com 
missioned  me  to  make  a  purchase  of  the  historic  stone  house  for 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  3 

the  family,  a  servi'ce  which  I  regret  "was  omitted,  and  the  posses 
sion  will  be  left,  if  ever  gained,  to  some  member  of  the  family 
of  enterprise.* 

Persons  bearing  our  name  are  few,  but  they  are  of  diverse 
tastes,  and  found  engaged  in  many  vocations.  There  was  one 
branch  in  the  South,  planters,  whom  I  regret  to  say  developed  into 
enemies  of  the  Union,  and  are  known,  many  of  them,  to  have 
fallen  in  the  late  war,  and  are  now  unknown  by  their  loyal  kin 
dred  in  the  North.  There  was  the  commercial  branch,  Joseph 
Grinnell,  of  New  Bedford,  being  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
members,  just  deceased,  over  ninety  years  of  age.  He  was  a 
banker,  a  railway  president,  and  held  a  place  in  congress  forty 
years  ago,  shaping  our  commercial  policy  as  a  nation.  Henry 
Grinnell,  of  New  York,  died  in  1874,  at  the  age  of  seventy-five 
years,  a  quiet  merchant  prince,  who,  with  munificent  liberality, 
instituted  search*  for  Sir  John  Franklin  and  party,  and  thus  was 
discovered  what  is  known  as  "Grinnell  Land."  His  enterpise 
became  more  than  national.  Moses  H.  Grinnell,  another  brother, 
was  of  the  renowned  firm  of  Grinnell  &  Minturn,  New  York, 
great  ship-owners.  Mr.  Grinnell  was  elegant  in  tastes,  liberal,  as 
evinced  by  the  contribution  of  $20,000  in  a  single  political  cam 
paign;  long  a  member  of  Congress,  Collector  of  the  Port  of  New 
York  under  President  Grant,  losing  the  mass  of  his  fortune  in 
building  the  Hudson  River  Railroad,  and  spending  the  later  years 
of  his  life  abroad,  offended  in  his  political  honor  by  President 
Grant,  who  would  not  accept  his  resignation,  but  later  appointed 
an  enemy  rather  than  a  friend  to  the  Collectorship.  I  forbear  to 
give  the  details  of  this  painful  episode,  but  remember  well  his  last 
allusion  when  I  said,  "President  Grant  asked  yesterday  for  your 
health,"  on  which  I  gained  the  reply:  "Will  you  please  inform 
the  President  that  he  is  the  last  person  to  whom  I  should  answer ; 
for  in  my  dealings  with  men  in  the  last  forty  years  he  is  the  only 

*  I  do  not  forget  that  there  are  persons  of  our  name  who  insist  that  there  was 
an  arrival  of  a  branch  of  our  family  at  Plymouth,  in  the  early  colonial  days. 
Proud  of  a  noble  origin,  embracing  the  traditional  "three  brothers,"  whose  fami 
lies  became  widely  scattered  in  various  pursuits,  I  do  not  hold  this  a  simple  family 
legend,  and  we  must  wait  on  the  leisure  of  some  one  curious  in  genealogical 
research  for  names  and  dates. 

The  late  Hon.  Joseph  Grinnell,  of  New  Bedford,  Mass.,  gave  my  version 
of  their  origin,  migration  and  settlement.  Still,  if  antiquarian  researches  are 
prompted  by  this,  and  we  are  found  to  be  of  a  family  of  higher  repute,  it  will  be  no 
cause  of  regret. 


4  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS.      , 

official  who  had  the  power  and  inclination  to  bring  to  me  shame,  I 
will  not  say  dishonor."  This  circumstance  I  related  to  the  Presi 
dent,  who  said  it  pained  him  that  his  friend  would  not  tolerate  an 
explanation  of  an  occurrence  which  he  had  many  times  regretted 
when  too  late  to  make  atonement  to  his  great-hearted,  public- 
spirited  friend. 

The  New  England  Society  of  New  York  elected  Mr.  Grinnell 
its  President  for  some  ten  years,  and  a  fashionable  club-house  of 
that  city  deemed  itself  fortunate  in  possession  of  his  late  palatial 
residence,  at  the  corner  of  Fourteenth  Street  and  Fifth  Avenue,  so 
long  distinguished  for  the  elegant  and  liberal  hospitality  of  its 
owner. 

Of  this  family  I  mention  only  the  daughter  of  another  brother, 
Cornelia  Grinnell,  who  married  the  poet,  N.  P.  Willis.  She 
opened  and  maintained  in  her  widowhood  a  ladies'  school  in  New 
York.  Admiral  Hy.  Walton  Grinnell,  the  son  of  Henry  Grinnell, 
served  in  the  navy  during  the  war  with  honor,  later  in  the  service 
of  the  Mikado  of  Japan,  still  later  public  adviser  to  the  Republic  of 
Ecuador,  and  now,  I  think,  has  retired  after  a  distinguished  career. 

Hon.  George  Grinnell,  of  Greenfield,  Massachusetts,  was  long  a 
•member  of  Congress,  afterward  wearing  the  ermine  of  a  just 
judge,  an  officer  in  the  Congregational  church  for  half  a  century, 
and  lived  to  an  advanced  age.  His  descendants  have  upheld  the 
repute  of  the  family.  Hon.  James  S.  Grinnell,  known  as  an  agri 
cultural  writer,  is  an  authority  on  rural  affairs.  Hon.  W.  F.  Grin 
nell,  long  in  the  Consular  service,  married  a  sister  of  our  Vice- 
President  Morton,  of  whom  he  was  a  business  partner,  and  with 
whom  he  now  holds  a  confidential  and  honored  relation  in  Wash 
ington.  Leaving  unmentioned  a  large  class  less  distinguished,  but 
alike  worthy  of  honorable  family  mention,  I  pass  now  to 

OUR    OWN    FAMILY. 

Our  grandfather  was  Reuben  Grinnell,  a  farmer,  who  removed 
from  Salisbury,  Connecticut,  to  Lanesborough,  Massachusetts.  In 
the  year  1791  he  migrated  to  what  is  known  as  Lanesborough 
Street,  in  the  town  of  New  Haven,  Vermont.  His  children  were 
seven,  none  of  whom  survive,  nor  are  their  descendants  numerous. 
Among  the  sons  was  Heman ;  his  only  son  was  the  late  Josiah 
Hopkins  Grinnell,  M.  D.,  of  Messina,  New  York.  His  son,  Pro- 


REMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY   YEABS.  5 

fessor  Ashbell  Parmalee  Grinnell,  M.  D.,  is  at  the  head  of  the 
Medical  University  at  Burlington,  Vermont.  He  is  a  surgeon  of 
merited  distinction,  for  whom  not  his  kindred  alone  predict  greater 
professional  eminence.  Another  son,  Judge  Julius  Sprague  Grin- 
nell,  of  Chicago,  is  a  graduate  of  Middlebury  College,  Vermont, 
who  has  early  attained  national  fame,  by  the  arraignment,  prosecu 
tion  and  conviction  of  the  Chicago  anarchists  in  1887.  The  world 
knows  of  their  imprisonment  and  execution,  deemed  a  severe  blow 
to  Socialistic  theories,  and  the  violence  of  agitators  under  our  flag. 
Julius  is  now  an  able  and  popular  judge  of  the  Superior  Court,  and 
justly  a  favorite  in  the  professional  ranks  which  he  adorns. 

Myron  Grinnell,  my  father,  was  a  brother  of  Heman,  and  the 
eldest  son  of  Reuben,  with  whom,  after  a  mention  of  my  maternal 
ancestors,  the  family  narrative  will  continue. 

Grandfather  Nathaniel  Hastings  was  born  in  Scotland ;  proud, 
according  to  the  family  traditions,  of  the  eminence  of  his  name  in 
the  annals  of  that  country  of  renowned  heroes.  He  was  the  son  of 
a  farmer.  While  yet  a  youth  he  came  to  this  country  and  bore  a 
part  in  the  war  with  Great  Britain,  serving  on  the  side  of  his 
adopted  country,  and  was  wounded  at  the  battle  of  Plattsburg, 
with  honor  dying  from  his  wounds.  There  was  left  a  dependent 
family,  among  whom  was  Catherine  Hastings,  who  gained  a  good 
education  by  her  own  exertions  and  became  the  wife  of  Myron 
Grinnell,  to  whom  there  were  born  four  sons;  the  second  being 
Josiah  Bushnell,  the  writer  of  these  sketches. 

As  to  our  family  tree :  It  was  neither  gorgeous  nor  traced  to  a 
deep  root.  If  it  were,  I  would  not  minister  to  family  vanity  by  a 
genealogical  record,  on  which,  in  want  of  personal  force,  so  many 
ordinary  mortals  lean  heavily.  My  parents  were  from  the  com 
mon  people,  grand  as  was  the  French  ancestry.  Father  was  an 
elegant  writer,  and  a  school-master,  whose  pupil  was  the  only  New 
Englander  knighted  by  the  Queen — the  late  Sir  Curtis  M.  Lamp- 
son,  Bart.,  of  London.  He,  through  regard  for  my  father,  asked 
me  to  become  a  guest  at  his  home  in  London.  Mother  was  early 
an  orphan,  born  in  Barre,  Massachusetts,  her  father  having  been 
mortally  wounded  in  the  war  of  1812.  She  was  intelligent,  wise 
and  kind.  I  once  thought  her  too  rigid  in  discipline  of  the  boys, 
but  not  now,  after  the  lapse  of  thirty-nine  years  since  she  passed 
to  her  sure  and  great  reward. 

Grandfather  Reuben  Grinnell,  and  grandmother  Mabel,  were 


6  EEMINISCENCES   OF  FOETT   TEARS. 

characters  whom  their  descendents  remember  with  pride.  Too 
early  they  fell  by  the  fatal  epidemic  in  New  Haven,  in  1814.  I 
learned  more  of  them  by  the  lips  of  our  early  minister,  Josiah 
Hopkins,  D.  D.,  for  whom  I  was  named,  than  from  all  other 
sources — that  not  being  our  day  of  newspapers  and  biographies. 

A    WEDDING    TRIP. 

What  changes !  We  ride  in  the  Pulman  cars.  It  is  true  tradi 
tion  that  Grandfather  Reuben,  with  an  ax,  "blazed  his  way"  from 
Salisbury,  Connecticut,  up  through  the  forests  of  Vermont,  made  a 
clearing,  put  up  a  log  house,  and  returned  after  marriage  to  the 
new  home  with  his  bride,  on  a  sled  drawn  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  by  oxen.  Their  arrival  was  at  night,  only  to  learn  that  the 
cow,  left  at  the  spring  by  the  stack  of  marsh  hay,  had  been  killed 
by  the  Indians  or  white  marauders,  and  the  cabin  burned  so  far  as 
the  green  logs  would  allow.  The  bride  admitted  in  later  days  to 
the  children,  that  she  dropped  tears  over  their  calamities  and 
perils  by  the  Indians. 

"We  can  go  back,"  said  the  husband,  "or  to  the  nearest  settle 
ment."  "No,  no,"  was  the  sharp  answer,  "I  came  here  to  stay, 
and  am  not  going  back  to  be  laughed  at  —  until  we  hear  the 
Indian  whoop.  We  can  put  on  a  new  cabin  roof,  and  there  is  the 
spring  left,  and  no  fear  of  starvation,  with  plenty  of  fish  and  game 
for  the  winter. 

There  is  your  heroine !  The  spirit  of  the  Vermont  mothers, 
worthy  to  rear  and  impel  the  boys,  even  the  grand  boys,  to  deeds 
that  have  since  been  heralded  over  the  world. 

This  is  Dr.  Hopkins'  description  of  grandfather,  his  next  man 
for  twenty-one  years:  "Energetic,  brave,  but  a  stammerer — no 
stumbler  in  locomotion  —  very  thick  in  speech,  except  when  he 
prayed;  then  he  was  clear,  fluent  and  fervent."  By  his  history 
I  judge  they  were  not  mere  words.  Families  came  in  good  num 
bers  to  New  Haven  with  the  tidal  wave  of  immigration,  and  the 
next  thing  was  a  church.  He  said,  passing  through  the  woods, 
"That  pine  tree  is  the  finest  in  the  forest,  and  must  be  saved, 
with  its  like,  for  the  meeting-house."  Fifty  years  after  it  was 
felled  and  placed  in  the  church  I  sat  upon  the  tree-stump,  proud  of 
my  ancestral  relation. 

How  came  the  church  ?     On  this  wise  :  Grandfather  said.,  "  Let 


REMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY   YEARS.  7 

the  land  rest  one  year  —  Moses  was  the  best  farmer  as  well  as  law 
maker,  and  he  ruled  that  at  periods  of  seven  years  the  land  should 
rest.  Ours  is  overplowed,  and  I  move  that  there  be  no  sowing  of 
grain  this  year.  I  have  spared  my  best  trees,  handsome  as  the 
cedars  of  Lebanon,  and  our  land  is  worth  no  more  than  acres  in  old 
Sodom,  if,  with  our  rising  families,  we  cannot  have  a  church  and  a 
minister. "  A  grand  pioneer ! 

The  meeting-house  went  up,  and  it  stood  the  only  one  in 
town,  spacious,  comely  and  firm,  until,  after  ninety  years,  it  was 
destroyed  by  fire.  The  grandchildren  have  replaced  it  with  an 
edifice  of  elegant  adaptation. 

The  adoption  of  Moses'  plan,  allowing  the  land  to  rest, 
enforced  an  ancient  theory  in  farming,  the  next  year  bringing  the 
equal  of  two  ordinary  crops.  A  minister  was  the  next  demand. 
From  the  records  in  the  old  town  I  learn  that  the  first  minister 
received  as  salary,  "Five  dollars  a  Sabbath,  one-fourth  cash  in  the 
spring,  and  three-fourths  cattle  in  the  fall.'7  It  was  a  Yale  Col 
lege  graduate,  Rev.  Silas  Bingham,  who  was  the  first  recipient  of 
this  munificence.  Then  came  Mr.  Hopkins,  who  had  been  reared 
a  farmer,  and  was  anxious  to  lessen  the  salary  burden  by  labor,  if 
land  could  be  had  on  which  to  work.  Grandfather  took  up  the 
plan  of  utilizing  the  generosity  of  the  able-bodied  young  minister, 
who  had  heard  it  hinted  that  a  very  fine  chopper  was  spoiled  to 
make  a  common  divine.  The  response  being,  "Well,  let  me  keep 
my  hand  in,  if  I  should  return  to  at  least  an  honest  occupation." 
There  was  a  parish  meeting.  A  home  for  the  minister  was  the 
living  question,  and  grandfather  hinted  to  the  large  landholders  on 
the  Street  that  this  was  the  time  to  test  how  much  they  valued 
the  worth  of  a  minister  in  the  community.  No  one  responded. 
"Well,"  said  he,  "I'll  give  the  land";  then,  to  the  question, 
"How  much  land  do  you  propose?"  the  answer  was,  "For  the 

Lord's  cause,  and  not  to  shame  my  rich  neighbors, steps  on 

front,  down  through  the  sugar  orchard,  cedars  and  all.  Who'll 
measure  it  ?  The  honest  man  who'll  live  on  it." 

This  was  related  by  Dr.  Hopkins,  forty  years  afterward: 
"The  parish  seemed  to  be  out  the  next  morning  to  witness  the 
land  measuring;  I  declined  the  delicate  service,  a  wag  saying  it 
wasn't  fair  to  take  the  steps  of  the  tallest  man  in  town  in  cutting 
off  a  man's  farm ;  but  I  stepped  it,  and  while  I  heard  no  regrets  at 
the  gift,  it  was  rumored  that  your  grandfather  did  say,  'I  thought 


8  REMINISCENCED    OF  FORTY   TEAhS. 

he  had  the  longest  legs  I  ever  saw.'  The  stakes  were  set,  and  the 
land  was.  over  twenty  acres,  the  most  liberal  act,  and  the  best 
stroke  of  policy  for  the  church,  during  my  stay  of  twenty-one 
years  in  New  Haven."* 

Dr.  H.7s  resignation  is  fresh  in  memory.  I  came  from  school 
hungry,  and  father  and  mother  came  home  from  the  church  meet 
ing.  Mother,  with  closed  doors,  1  could  hear  sobbing  in  the  bed 
room.  After  coming  out  we  plead  to  know  what  was  the  matter. 
She  could  not  speak.  At  supper  nothing  was  eaten  save  by  the 
"boys  j  father  saying  with  a  trembling  lip,  "  Children,  do  you  know 
Mr.  Hopkins  is  going  away  ?  "  It  dispersed  the  family,  and  there 
was  too  much  grief  to  partake  even  of  breakfast. 

There  was  little  of  excitement  for  the  boys  in  these  early 
times  —  no  water  near  for  swimming  or  to  make  ice  for  skating. 
I  was  not,  by  a  mythical  spaniel,  brought  out  near  drowning, 


*On  Saturday,  p.  m.,  the  wife  of  Deacon  Tripp  called  on  the  family,  to  find  a 
cold  room  in  mid-winter,  thereupon  Mrs.  Hopkins  informed  the  Doctor  in  his 
study  over  the  wood-shed,  that  there  was  no  wood  in  the  house.  The  reply  was, 
"Neither  is  there  outside,  and  Sunday  is  upon  us."  That  was  an  announce 
ment — a  bee  in  the  bonnet  of  the  deacon's  wife  that  buzzed  over  Sunday,  bringing 
out  a  captain  for  a  frolic,  enjoining  a  surprise  with  a  load  of  wood  from  every 
parishioner,  fowls  plucked  and  in  feathers,  pork  and  beef,  in  halves  and  quarters, 
urging  a  contribution  from  every  heated  oven,  and  the  presence  of  matrons  and 
young  maidens.  The  surprise  was  only  more  perfect  than  the  carnival  was  gay,  in 
a  house  overflowing  with  gifts  and  guests,  the  tea-cup  stimulating  within,  and  the 
flask,  bottle  and  the  jug  without,  up  to  the  going  down  of  the  sun,  when  the  house 
became  too  narrow  for  the  provisions  and  the  wood-yard  and  garden  too  small  for 
the  loads  of  maple  and  beech,  from  the  trees  felled  from  the  parish  lot  and  those 
gained  by  trespass  over  the  fence  from  the  Grinnell  woods.  Within  the  house 
there  was  reported  seven  cheese  tubs  of  cake  and  pastry  and  thirteen  quarters  of 
beef  ;  and  the  greater  curiosity,  a  wood  pile  not  fully  worked  up  and  burned  for 
ten  years.  It  was  the  scene  of  hilarious  conviviality,  and  on  the  departure  of  the 
guests,  the  minister  was  called  on  for  a  speech,  which  he  gave  from  the  top  of  a 
wood-pile,  as  recalled  after  twenty-five  years  : 

"  Friends,  I  am  cornered,  not '  corned,'  but  crippled  in  my  labors,  ruined  as  to 
my  garden,  covered  with  logs  from  the  sugar  orchard.  If  you  wish  me  to  save 
you  from  a  suit  for  trespass  on  the  Grinnell  woods,  over  the  fence,  I  will  make 
your  plea — 'the  deep  snow  covered  fences.'  Do  you  think  I  can  live  long  enough 
to  burn  up  this  wood-pile  ?  It  will  be  only  by  a  providential  interposition  and  life 
far  into  dotage.  I  was  a  chopper  in  my  day,  but  it  calls  out  the  perspiration  to 
think  of  these  huge  logs.  Can  I  ask  a  favor,  that  you  relieve  the  house  by  taking 
back,  or  to  your  neighbors,  loads  of  provisions  more  than  my  horse  can  draw  ?" 
The  crowd  shouted,  "No,  No  !  "  "Then  if  I  am  to  distribute,  you  may  under 
stand  that  preaching  in  the  parish  is  suspended  until  spring." 

Great  red-letter  day  for  the  parish,  but  loud  calls  from  other  churches,  with 
friction  growing  out  of  the  Masonic  excitement,  led  to  a  dismissal  for  Auburn,  N. 
Y.,  with  warm  counsel,  praise  and  sorrow  in  the  town. 


EEMINISCENCES    OF  FOBTY    YEAES.  9 

for  real  safety  was  in  my  ignorance  of  either  skating,  swimming 
or  rowing,  which  may  account  for  my  aversion,  in  all  my  later  life, 
to  water  in  large  quantities. 

I  indulge  only  in  an  optimistic  view,  and  say  not  that  "the  for 
mer  days  were  better  than  these,  for  thou  dost  not  speak  wisely." 
Dare  I  give  you  a  farmer  boy's  recollection  it  would  be  of  bare 
feet  and  nursing  stone  bruises ;  binding  Canada  thistles  with  stray 
stalks  of  wheat ;  guiding  in  locomotion  a  string  of  steers  at  a  plow, 
with  a  rebound  at  stumps  and  stones,  which  struck  one's  anatomy 
with  the  handles,  but  in  a  severer  shock  at  the  doctrine  of  the 
"perseverance  of  the  saints."  Families  rode  to  church  in  spring- 
less  lumber  wagons,  over  hubs  and  stones,  affording  painful  exer 
cise  rather  than  amusement  to  the  young,  and  to  the  mothers  in 
weariness  a  doubtful  means  of  grace.  Money  to  most  was  not  a 
snare,  nor  its  possession  a  delusion.  I  recall  a  half  day  kept  from 
school  to  ride  a  horse  in  corn  ploughing  on  a  scant  sheep-skin  and 
a  sharp  backbone,  often  impaled  on  the  harness  hames  by  a  sudden 
collision  with  stumps  and  rocks  —  and,  as  my  mother  was  a  widow 
I  was  generously  paid  with  a  bright,  full-orbed  silver  five  cents. 
As  a  carrier  of  letters  from  the  post  office,  I  have  withheld  for 
twentjr-five  cents  postage  a  letter  from  "The  Ohio"  to  the  fond 
"girl  I  left  behind  me."  On  the  one  newspaper  subscriber  there 
were  many  calls,  and  if  they  who  "  go  a  borrowing,  go  a  sorrow 
ing,"  there  was  much  grief  in  the  neighborhood.  The  great  church 
early  gave  the  wood  ashes  to  the  sexton  for  his  service,  and  on 
his  retiring,  fires  were  made  by  charity  and  the  bell  rung  later  by 
chance.  Those  high  gallery  pews  screened  card  players  behind  the 
choir,  and  boys  in  the  corner  at  play  at  fox  and  geese;  on  the 
stealthy  approach  of  the  tithing-man,  one  boy  could  swallow  the 
black  fox  and  the  other  pocket  the  geese.  I  recall  now  the  jutting 
tufts  of  hair  in  the  high,  remote  African  pew,  giving  nearer  access 
to  their  God  in  worship  than  to  brother  mortals.  Hymns  were 
usually  in  dolorous  long  meter  and  sermons  in  longer  measure; 
which,  with  hard  seats  and  chilled  extremities,  the  genius  of  men 
tal  and  physical  punishment  seemed  to  have  inaugurated  a  prepa 
ration  for  the  abode  of  the  incorrigible. 

Sheep-washing  was  a  frolic,  and  like  the  return  from  the  barn 
or  house-raising,  there  was  much  reeling,  and  the  usual  admixture 
of  profanity,  not  confined  to  the  grown  men.  A  story  is  told  of 
father,  which  places  him  in  the  family  line  as  a  pioneer  in  thought. 


10  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

After  a  temperance  address  by  father,  a  moderate  toper  protested 
against  signing  the  pledge,  saying  that  he  "washed  sheep  and 
must  have  it,"  to  which  father  replied,  "I  can  prove  it  is  a  delu 
sion,  wait  and  we  will  see,"  and,  at  the  next  washing,  father  was 
set  upon  and  wet  all  over  by  dashing  the  sheep  on  a  chilly  day, 
yet  not  taking  cold,  and  fully  sustaining  his  total  abstinence  the 
ory.  A  brother  wag  of  the  toper  would  take  the  pledge  with  a 
reservation,  "at  weddings  and  sheep-washings."  This  was  said  to 
be  the  ludicrous  device :  tethering  a  sheep  near  the  house,  and  dip 
ping  it  in  a  trough  of  water  as  often  as  a  drink  was  taken,  which 
cut  short  the  life  of  the  animal  without  prolonging  by  abstinence 
that  of  its  owner.  I  do  not  vouch  for  the  verity  of  this  last  story, 
but  it  was  neither  a  humane  nor  a  philosophic  expedient  of  the 
veteran  toper. 

The  cider  mill,  which  was  an  established  institution  of  the 
time,  I  recall,  for  we  were  partners  in  a  concern  which  I  now  see 
to  have  been  an  insidious  foe  of  good  order,  and  leading  to  the  first 
steps  in  a  career  of  drunkenness,  poverty  and  crime. 

To  travelers  all  was  free  at  the  cider  mill;  the  sweet,  little 
tasted ;  the  hard,  well  patronized.  And  there  was  real  stimulation 
in  taking  out  the  bungs  from  the  old  barrels  and  inhaling  the 
fumes;  next  in  effect  to  a  draught  of  cider-brandy.  I  was  an 
imitative  boy,  and  bantered  the  young  company  to  see  who  could 
longest  inhale  at  the  bung.  Soon  I  began  to  be  pale  and  reel,  and, 
to  test  my  condition,  not  simulated,  there  was  a  race,  and  in  the 
contest  my  plunge  was  into  the  head  of  a  barrel,  from  which  I  was 
borne  and  placed  in  bed,  and  a  doctor  was  called,  to  pronounce, 
"alcohol  on  the  brain,"  and  my  recovery  doubtful.  Mother  said 
it  was  brutal  to  encourage  a  race  for  sport,  and  she  would  like  to 
see  the  old  mill  go  up  in  flames.  This  was  my  first  and  last  boy 
exhibition  in  a  state  of  intoxication,  and  has  found  me  not  more 
inclined  to  smile  at  the  reeling  and  drivel  of  a  drunkard  than  to 
take  pleasure  in  the  urging  of  peaceable  dogs  to  a  brutal  contest, 
by  their  owners  and  supposed  superiors. 

To  mother  I  have  alluded  in  her  indignation.  She  was  strict, 
but  not  severe  in  discipline.  A  home  Sabbath-school  was  known 
in  my  early  boyhood,  and  "  it  was  verse  a  day,  and  all  the  same 
verse,"  and  these  must  be  committed,  and  repeated  correctly  before 
the  Sunday  supr/er  —  no  verses,  no  supper;  and  there  was  for 
years  no  modification  of  this  maternal  edict.  It  seemed  a  severe 


REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY   YEARS.  11 

exaction  then,  but  a  hundred  times  since  I  have  used  the  verses 
learned,  as  more  than  the  small  change  in  society ;  an  accomplish 
ment  to  quote  and  repeat  in  story  or  argument  what  I  learned 
under  an  early  regime,  as  serviceable  as  passages  in  Homer  or 
Shakespeare.  If  one  asks  as  to  the  rigid  exactions  of  those  days,  I 
cannot  advise.  There  were  not  as  now  many  books,  and  a  religious 
newspaper  was  a  luxury.  A  family  could  draw  at  Sabbath-school 
a  small  book,  and  borrowing  papers  from  the  neighbors  was  in  line 
of  service  with  that  of  bringing  up  mugs  of  cider  on  a  friendly 
call ;  both  monotonous,  even  humiliating. 

Our  mother  took  a  high  view  as  to  religious  duties.  No  matter 
what  the  pressure,  it  was  the  rule,  not  an  incident,  that  we  were 
called  into  the  quiet  corner  room  for  morning  prayer  —  the  door 
bolted.  It  was  my  firm  conviction  that  she  expected  Divine  direc 
tion  after  father's  death,  and  that  she  would  be  wisely  guided  in 
mapping  out  a  course  for,  and  in  the  training  of,  her  four  rather 
rollicking  boys. 

My  first  and  last  profane  oath  was  uttered  when  ten  years  of 
age.  Not  that  I  have  not  "felt  swear"  a  thousand  times,  and 
used  the  common  "by,"  etc.,  of  youth;  but  even  in  anger  or  war 
time  never  got  down  to  the  plane  of  a  vulgar  oath.  If  this  seems 
a  boast,  I  rather  call  it  a  proof  that  a  common  and  profane  prac 
tice  is  without  excuse.  I  was  driving  the  cows  to  pasture,  and 
clandestinely  indulging  in  a  barefoot  race,  when  I  struck  my  toe 
against  a  stone,  to  make  a  bruise,  and  bring  out  an  oath.  Horrors ! 
Mother,  I  thought,  would  know  it,  and  the  heavens  seemed  full  of 
accusers,  and  I  so  fainted  in  my  fright  as  to  be  compelled  to  sit 
down  on  a  rock,  and  made  a  resolve,  which  by  the  grace  of  God  I 
have  kept  —  never  to  use  a  profane  word,  no  matter  what  the 
temptation.  My  veneration  is  not  large,  and  to  good  counsel  and 
example,  rather  than  to  any  special  goodness,  I  must  attribute  at 
least  negative  virtue. 

A    BIDE    WITH    SPURS. 

The  horse  was  to  me  an  early  and  a  great  attraction,  and  I 
should  be  pardoned  for  an  almost  idolatrous  equine  devotion  in 
later  years.  A  boy  must  have  his  experiences.  There  was  no  colt 
in  the  neighborhood  on  whose  back  I  did  not  covet  a  seat ;  impa 
tient  with  our  "old  Kate,"  reputed  very  lazy.  The  troopers  I  had 


12  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

seen  with  their  spurs  and  plumes,  and  the  only  striking  picture  I 
can  recall  in  my  bed-room  was  one  of  Bonaparte  on  his  steed, 
crossing  the  Alps.  A  pair  of  spurs  I  borrowed,  and  when  some 
distance  from  the  barn,  in  a  field,  put  them  on  to  test  the  speed  of 
old  Kate.  A  saddle  was  a  necessity  to  good  riding  with  spurs,  a 
serious  fact  I  soon  learned.  Mounting,  there  was  at  once  too 
much  speed  for  the  safety  of  the  rider,  and  the  tighter  I  clung  the 
sharper  was  the  piercing,  and  the  more  frantic  was  the  mare. 
The  barn  was  the  objective  point  of  the  beast,  regardless  of  the 
rider,  and  there  was  a  leap  of  the  bars,  and  a  bound  by  the  cow, 
over  the  milk  maid  on  duty,  screaming  in  fright,  and  I  passed 
through  the  stable  door  with  less  than  the  safety  of  John  Gilpin 
in  the  race,  and  was  thrown  over  the  head  of  the  brute  into  the 
manger,  from  which  I  was  borne,  spurs  and  all,  to  account  for  a 
venture  which  came  near  costing  me  my  life.  It  cured  me  of  my 
aspiration  to  become  a  trooper,  if  not  deterring  me  from  a  Colo 
nelcy  of  cavalry  offered  to  me  by  the  Secretary  of  War,  who,  of 
course,  was  in  profound  ignorance  of  my  aptitude,  and  this  early 
episode. 

MILITARY    INFANTRY    SERVICE. 

For  this  I  had  little  taste.  In  a  country  of  game,  in  Vermont 
and  the  West,  I  never  took  an  hour  for  hunting;  and  the  first, 
last,  and  all  of  my  slain  by  lead  were  a  prowling  dog,  a  vexatious 
squirrel,  and  a  prairy  chicken  on  the  wing.  Among  Indians,  cow 
boys  and  desperadoes  in  Texas,  and  elsewhere,  I  never  bore  a 
pistol  —  and  I  now  regard  it  as  good  policy.  I  carried  no  weapon 
of  defense  above  a  penknife.  I  did,  however,  carry  a  gun  at  train 
ing,  and  made  my  bow  like  most  of  the  boys  on  being  chosen  a  cor 
poral.  I  coaxed  my  way,  in  place  of  the  hired  man,  to  the  muster. 
The  company  and  recreation  I  fancied,  without  any  special  delight 
in  gunpowder.  After  weary  and  ludicrous  evolutions,  there  was  a 
finale  of  a  sham-battle,  loading  and  firing  by  platoons.  The  "con 
fused  noise "  and  orders  put  me  off  my  guard,  and  I  went  through 
the  motions  with  a  flint  lock,  only  certain  that  the  powder  was 
burnt  in  the  pan.  There  was  disbanding  with  a  cheer,  after  that 
day's  training  in  the  ways  of  valor,  to  meet  any  armed  foe  in  the 
"  deadly  imminent  breach." 

The  old  French  musket  was  returned,  and  then  I  met  derision 
which  cooled  my  military  ardor.  It  was  not  revived  by  the  dress 


REMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY   YEARS.  13 

parade  of  one  hundred  thousand  men  which  I  saw  under  McClel- 
Ian,  ever  drilling  and  getting  ready  to  "move  on  to  Richmond." 
"That  old  gun  seems  to  be  loaded  yet,"  said  the  owner.  It  was; 
wad  after  wad  was  withdrawn,  and  with  each  a  pile  of  powder  left 
upon  the  floor  up  to  seven  or  eleven,  I  do  not  recall  which,  but  cer 
tain  of  the  kind  of  load,  which  was,  whether 

"Aimed  at  duck  or  plover, 
Sure  to  knock  the  owner  over." 

It  was  only  good  luck  that  the  gun  did  not  go  off  and  burst 
with  my  best  intentions,  for  I  should  not  have  been  alive  to  tell 
the  story,  nor  my  companions  in  arms,  who,  rejoicing  in  a  fortunate 
escape,  rallied  "  the  corporal "  on  his  claims  to  promotion  and  pros 
pect  of  military  renown.  I  accepted  the  fiasco,  ominous  of  my 
failure  as  a  nimrod  and  a  soldier,  and  have  never  thought  con 
cealed  weapons  necessary  to  a  brave  spirit;  nor  even  the  best 
defense  against  personal  violence.  I  have  cherished  a  collateral 
heresy,  doubting  the  maxim  as  a  good  one  for  an  upright  nation, 
"In  time  of  peace,  prepare  for  war."  We  do  not  act  on  this  in  our 
relation  to  other  nations,  and  those  foreign  people  who  do,  are 
bearing  colossal  burdens  against  which  the  people  are  protesting 
with  voice  soon  to  be  louder  than  the  artillery  of  the  Captains  of 
war,  who  with  their  conceits  and  ambitions  make  only  pawns  of 
men  in  the  great  games  of  slaughter. 

AN    EXPERIENCE    OF    SIXTY    YEARS    AGO. 

My  first  visit  to  a  show  is  fresh  in  memory.  It  was  not  a  car 
avan  ;  but  in  a  ball-room,  a  long  narrow  hotel  hall.  I  was  nine  or 
ten  years  of  age,  and  the  novelty  of  the  exhibition  was  a  ballad 
singer,  a  phrenologist  and  a  miniature  railroad  —  less  than  sixty 
years  ago  there  being  no  riding  on  railroads. 

The  lady  singer,  I  dare  say,  was  from  Boston,  that  city  from 
which  came  our  taste  for  fresh,  frozen  cod-fish,  music  teachers  and 
fancy-dressed  people  called  fops.  This  singer  indulged  in  all  the 
airs  and  show  of  opera  girls,  as  I  afterward  learned.  How  she  did 
trill  and  scream !  What  an  open  countenance  on  the  high  notes ! 
". Isn't  she  good-looking  ?"  said  the  rustic  boys.  "No,"  answered 
the  jealous  sisters,  "she  paints,  I  know  it!"  There  was  what  was 
then  called  "low-dressing,"  and  what  is  now  termed  "decollete." 


14  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   TEAKS. 

Thereupon  a  heated  discussion,  by  the  mothers,  as  to  the  delicacy 
of  the  exhibition,  avowing  it  as  their  "last  visit  to  such  a  show." 

The  bland  bump-man  could  not  readily  find  subjects  to  exam 
ine,  after  his  laughable  hits  of  character,  and  the  boys  came  up. 
Mother  told  it  years  after.  "  Lead  up  that  tow-head  !  *?  I  was  the 
subject,  and  judge  there  was  not  much  flattery ;  but  in  blue  days, 
later,  found  only  this  stimulant,  "Keep  up  courage;  don't  you 
know  the  phrenologist  said  you  would  turn  over  in  your  coffin, 
after  other  people  said  you  were  dead,  and  here  you  are  in  dumps." 
This  little  incident  made  me  what  you  call  an  "optimist,"  but 
before  I  heard  that  name,  the  guess  of  the  lecturer  was  many  times 
a  stimulant,  and  moved  me  with  courage  in  the  face  of  ridicule  and 
in  the  company  of  expediency-cowards  in  many  a  varied  role. 

That  railway,  and  the  ride  thereon,  I  recall  vividly.  There  was 
a  portable,  elevated  wooden  track  and  a  miniature  locomotive,  with 
steam  up ;  the  car  only  large  enough  for  a  child.  A  ball-room  trip 
was  made  in  a  few  seconds.  It  did  not  require  much  coaxing  to 
take  a  ride ;  yet  I  was  then  ignorant  as  to  how  they  put  on  the 
brakes,  to  keep  the  engine  from  rushing  through  the  windows;  but 
I  did  not  care  to  give  up  the  seat  after  being  praised  for  courage 
and  the  prediction,  "  That  boy  will  be  a  railroad  man  some  day." 
The  truth  is  a  marvel  that  I  can  state,  that  in  the  last  fifty  years 
I  have  ridden  a  distance  equal  to  many  times  around  the  globe, 
without  personal  injury  or  more  than  a  trivial  accident  to  pas 
senger  trains  in  my  charge  as  a  manager,  imperiled  by  freshets, 
storms  and  vile  wreckers.  What  a  change !  Cars  were  then  only 
freighting  stone  for  Bunker  Hill  monument  — three  miles  against 
one  hundred  and  seventy  or  eighty  thousand  miles  of  railroad  now, 
built  at  a  cost  equal  to  the  entire  wealth  of  the  country  then,  aid 
ing  in  facile  locomotive  a  hundred  fold,  and  employing  the  brains 
or  hands  of  four  or  five  millions  of  our  people. 

A  conscience  the  small  boy  had,  and  as  good  as  new — with  a 
good  reason,  for  he  had  not  used  it. 

An  early,  slight  peculation  is  not  forgotten.  "Will  a  con 
science  beggar  him  who  keeps  it?"  and  did  the  small  boy  who 
strove  to  live  well,  seek  to  "  live  without  it  ? "  I  was  on  an 
errand  to  the  postoffice,  at  the  house  where  the  family  were  in  the 
basement  at  breakfast.  On  my  way  down  the  stairs,  I  saw  on  a 
shelf  a  new  object  to  me  —  a  mammoth  peach  stone,  which  I  cov 
eted,  and  put  in  my  pocket.  Leaving  the  house,  I  did  not  show  it 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS.  15 

to  the  boys,  feeling  guilty.  At  the  Sabbath-school,  Miss  Squire, 
an  accomplished  lady,  was  my  teacher.  She  afterward  became  a 
bride,  Mrs.  Henry,  and  mother  of  Mrs.  Gen.  Alger,  the  wife  of  the 
distinguished  man  —  head  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic — 
Gen.  Logan's  successor  in  fame.  That  lady  talked  to  the  boys 
about  petty  thefts.  The  peach  stone  so  disturbed  me  that  1  hid  it. 
Of  little  value  as  it  was,  my  teacher  had  made  me  uneasy  by  her 
appeal,  and  there  were  no  pleasant  thoughts  until  I  stealthily,  on 
another  postoffice  errand  visit,  left  the  peach  stone  in  the  place 
where  I  found  it.  It  was  a  forced  act,  without  any  peculiar,  per 
sonal  merit;  but  this  is  my  tribute,  after  near  sixty  years,  to  a 
lady  who  knew  how  to  counsel  a  wayward  boy,  not  yet  quite  bereft 
of  conscience. 

My  father  died  in  the  spring  of  1831,  of  brain  fever.  I  remem 
ber  him  tossing  on  the  bed  amidst  the  wildest  shrieks,  after  calm 
resting,  when  he  had  called  us  together,  despairing  for  himself,  yet 
giving  dying  counsel  recalled  not  in  the  words,  but  the  spirit. 
While  not  a  member  of  the  church,  he  used  to  take  a  part  in  meet 
ings,  and  officially  examine  school  teachers  for  the  town,  as  I  recall 
by  the  affrighted  candidates,  especially  the  girls,  who  came  before 
him.  Justice  courts  were  held  in  the  house,  and  patronizing  law 
yers,  from  out  of  town,  took  us  on  their  knees,  I  am  slow  to 
believe,  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  the  "favor  of  Court." 

Mother  said  later,  it  was  bad  enough  to  make  a  court-room  of 
the  house,  but  to  have  them  wrangle  over  Masonry  until  morning 
often,  was  a  bitter  experience.  Father,  I  think,  stood  by  the 
Order,  saying  the  stories  were  false,  and  that,  if  he  could  live  to 
see  the  boys  grow  up  good  church  members,  they  would  be  found 
in  safe  and  reputable  society. 

STERN    DAYS. 

A  guardian  was  the  next  demand  for  the  orphans — under  the 
law  a  mother — but  later  as  adviser,  Mr.  Jonathan  Hoyt.  If  in 
New  York,  he  would  have  been  styled  a  burgher ;  in  Vermont  a 
squire  He  was  acting  postmaster,  and  the  owner  of  a  spacious 
village  home,  and  well-stocked  farms.  I  should  add  he  had  been 
sheriff  of  the  county,  was  a  severe  critic  of  men,  an  entertaining 
story-teller,  finding  eager  listeners  among  noted  guests,  and  in  the 
village  stores. 


16  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

My  passing  under  his  guardianship  grew  out  of  a  village  fruit 
depredation.  It  was  hinted  that  "Widow  Grinnell's  boys"  were 
not  clear  of  suspicion.  I  had  no  part  in  taking  the  fruit,  and  only 
witnessed  the  fright  of  the  escaping  boys  tangled  in  potato  vines, 
even  to  falling,  and  who  came  near  being  impaled  on  fences  by 
rent  clothes,  which  forbade  personal  denials  by  the  guilty  party. 

Squire  Hoyt,  visiting  mother,  guessed  that  a  separation  would 
keep  the  boys  from  "behind  the  bars,"  and  proposed  that  I  should 
make  my  home  with  him.  I  assented,  and  found  great  diversion, 
and  enough  to  do,  and  still  think  it  to  my  credit  that  I  was  not 
out  of  the  house  a  night  for  five  years.  That  I  was  allowed  to 
attend  school  only  in  the  winter,  made  me  backward  and  restive 
when  I  saw  other  boys  fitted  out  with  their  blue  suits,  books  and 
pocket  money,  for  the  distant  academy.  But  I  was  a  favorite  with 
Mrs.  Hoyt,  who  was  gentle,  good,  mother-like  and  a  Christian. 
She  checked  my  aspirations,  while  the  care  of  animals,  and  their 
sale,  nursed  the  boy's  vanity.  I  drove  the  fastest  horses  in  town, 
engaged  the  haying  hands,  and  was  an  adept  in  sheep-shearing— 
tiresome,  merry  occasions.  Cattle  were  brought  in  autumn  from 
long  distances,  and  with  a  vein  of  independence  I  drove  alone  a 
small  herd,  more  than  twenty  miles,  reaching  home  only  by  the 
aid  of  the  larger  animals,  to  whose  tails,  in  my  weariness,  I  clung 
with  a  laughable  despair.  A  species  of  flattery  kept  me  from  book 
learning,  while  enlarging  my  study  of  men.  Great  was  my  elation 
when  asked  by  my  guardian  if  I  could  bring  the  town  money 
through  the  almost  impassable  mud,  from  the  city  of  Vergennes, 
six  miles  distant.  It  was  a  part  of  the  French  indemnity  in  1834, 
and  I  overheard  a  sharp-eyed  cashier  say,  "  it  wasn't  safe  to  send 
so  large  a  sum  of  money,  in  bank  bills  up  to  the  thousands,  with 
so  small  a  boy." 

On  a  second  trip,  one  of  my  mates  asked  for  a  ride  with  me  in 
a  sleigh  warm  with  furs,  and  after  a  fleet  horse.  Here  I  mention 
with  gratitude  a  fortunate  resistance  to  a  wild,  but  satanic  sugges 
tion.  "  Wouldn't  it  be  fine  to  have  so  much  money ;  let  us  take  it 
and  be  off  to  Canada."  (Long  before  the  Hegira  of  our  defaulters). 
"  It  is  now  eight  o'clock.  Sleighing  is  fine,  and  the  mare  will  put 
us  across  the  Canada  line  before  morning.  It  is  the  town's  money 
—  it  can  stand  it,  and  we'll  never  be  caught."  I  escaped  this 
great  temptation  offered  to  me  by  a  boy  older  than  myself,  who 
left  his  own  home  very  early  as  a  runaway  and  never  returned. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  17 

The  repulse  which  I  gave  him  is  not  remembered;  but  I  know  that 
our  mothers  were  mentioned,  and  the  disgrace,  which  he  sought  to 
ward  off  as  a  joke,  was  known  afterward  as  a  plot. 

A  permission  to  make  sales  of  stock  and  handle  money,  made 
me  vain.  The  sheep  sale  became  the  "store  talk."  Ex-Gov. 
Chittenden,  a  gentleman  of  dignity,  drove  up,  and  said  that  he 
passed  a  flock  of  sheep  which  he  learned  was  for  sale,  and  asked  if 
the  owner  was  about.  I  answered:  "He  has  gone  to  Michigan; 
but  the  sheep  are  for  sale,  and  I  will  show  them.'7  They  suited 
the  Governor,  and  thereupon  a  bargain  was  struck.  "  I  will  take 
them  when  Hoyt  returns."  I  answered,  "The  feed  is  short,  and 
the  offer  of  a  bargain  is  only  for  to-day."  "Are  you  not  rather  a 
small  boy  to  trade  with  ?  "  "  Yes,  but  you  can  go  and  ask  the  mer 
chant  about  me  in  the  store."  Mr.  Roscoe  came  out,  and  said, 
"  Trade  with  the  boy,  if  you  can  " ;  and  then  eight  hundred  dollars 
passed  into  my  hand  (no  iron  safes  in  the  country  then),  an  inci 
dent  talked  about,  and  to  feed  my  youthful  vanity  still  more,  while 
I  was  beguiled  along  in  ignorance  of  books. 

At  sixteen  years  of  age,  in  vain  I  plead  for  a  portion  of  my 
rightful  income  from  land.  The  answer  was,  "Not  a  dollar  for 
academy,  without  an  order  from  the  Court."  I  felt  that  the  rebuff 
was  cruel,  and  the  hint  that  I  should  be  served  on  my  majority, 

gave  me  little  satisfaction. 

•  -  • 

A    BOY    SCHOOL    TEACHER. 

My  new  plane  of  life  began  by  a  random,  thoughtless  reply  to 
a  question,  at  Sunday  noon,  while  waiting  on^Mr.  Eldridge  in  the 
postoffice  room.  He  said  their  new  school-house  room  was  nearly 

done,  and  asked  if  I  knew  if  Mr. had  engaged  for  the  winter. 

On  my  reply,  I  thought  he  had,  he  said,  "I  do  not  know  who  to 
get  then."  "Nor  do  I,"  was  my  sportive  reply,  "unless  you  take 
me."  "Would  you  teach?"  "Yes,  if  anybody  dare  try  me."  "I 
will.  Your  father  was  a  good  master,  and  I  went  to  his  school. 
Call  it  a  bargain,  if  it  is  Sunday,  and  we'll  fix  up  the  details."  To 
all  I  assented  on  condition  of  strict  privacy,  as  he  could  readily 
guess  what  talk  there  would  be  as  to  age  and  my  guardian's  ridi 
cule,  for  I  was  under  seventeen  years  of  age. 

The  crowded  schools  at  that  time  were  shams  —  masters  setting 
me  back  each  winter  after  the  puzzling  progress  in  a  sum  of  a  frog 


18  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY    YEARS. 

coming  up  out  of  the  well,  going  up  and  falling  back  so  many 
stones  in  the  effort.  Then  the  old  school-house  was  but  a  rookery, 
and  my  location  was  often  on  the  rogue's  bench,  and  over  the 
water  pail.  As  often  as  a  book  fell  into  the  pail,  there  was  one 
spoiled;  and  in  earlier  days  came  a  painful  flogging  infliction,  if 
found  a  graduate  at  the  head  of  the  bench  on  the  close  of  school. 
The  masters  were  brilliant,  but  only  student  hirelings  of  college 
for  the  term,  and  the  cold  house,  crowded  with  near  a  hundred, 
was  fit  subject  for  caricature. 

Great  praise  is  due  the  ladies  of  a  half  century  ago,  as  the  good 
angels  of  destruction.  The  heroines  of  this  destruction,  with  a 
smile,  heard  my  account  of  the  demolition  of  the  old  school-house, 
in  my  Vermont  oration. 

"The  demolition  of  the  old  school-house  furnished  a  vivid  illustration,  for  'I 
was  thar'  or  thereabouts.  That  old  unpainted  rookery  had  been  condemned  by 
public  opinion  for  years  ;  low,  crowded  by  a  round  hundred  pupils,  the  mice  peep 
ing  through  cracks  by  day  which  larger  shy  vermin  made  at  night ;  windows  rat 
tled,  clapboards  flapped  in  the  wind ;  and  a  generation  of  sufferers,  like  imprisoned 
convicts,  were  doomed  by  divisions,  sordid  tax  payers  and  tabled  resolves  of  the 
lords,  to  near  freeze  on  one  side  of  their  anatomy  and  roast  on  the  other,  until  the 
mothers  and  daughters  met,  on  the  fortunate  absence  of  the  men  at  a  Bristol  wolf 
hunt ;  moved,  closing  debate,  the  previous  question,  which  was  a  signal  for  the 
hasty  demolition  of  the  old  shell  in  certain  promise  of  a  new  house.  The  veteran 
matrons,  captains  of  squads  wielding  axes,  lifting  ladders,  pulling  at  ropes,  all  are 
gone,  but,  as  a  long-perched  victim  on  a  rough  bench,  I  do  not  withhold  my  trib- 
,  ute  of  gratitude  for  their  clever  device  and  courageous  execution. 

A  stern  conflict  was  before  me,  involving  preparation  and  the 
pride  of  success  or  the  shame  of  failure  in  this  private  school 
engagement.  Autumn  farm  work  was  driving,  and  not  over  until 
dark.  To  keep  myself  from  boys'  company  and  the  family,  that 
noted  wool  spinner  by  the  fire-place,  Bertha  Chapin,  still  living, 
made  an  agreement  to  lock  the  door  for  my  concealment,  if  I  would 
bring  in  pine  knots  for  light  and  fire.  There,  in  the  buzz  of  wheel 
and  crackling  fire,  for  many  evenings  extended  on  the  floor,  when 
weary,  I  found,  by  hard  study,  equipment  in  grammar  and  arith 
metic  for  the  school.  Here,  I  do  not  forget  the  Rev.  James  Mea- 
cham,  LL.  D. ,  the  minister,  afterward  a  member  of  Congress,  who 
helped  me  with  the  hard  sums.  Most  kindly  would  he  take  me 
to  the  school-house  in  storm,  quietly  inspiring  with  those  kind 
words  which  I  ever  valued,  as  the  promptings  of  the  statesman 
and  generous  friend.  In  the  school,  I  was  a  student  from  neces 
sity,  to  keep  ahead  of  ambitious  pupils,  and  the  predicted  failure  of 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  19 

the  boy  was  not  realized.  I  even  became  bold  enough  to  speak  in 
our  town  lyceum,  and  had  an  exhibition  at  the  close  of  the  school. 

It  is  a  pleasing  reminiscence  that  at  the  meeting  of  the  people 
of  the  town  of  New  Haven,  two  years  ago,  there  was  the  venerable 
father  who  hired  me,  and  his  son,  laden  with  honors,  of  whom  I 
said:  "He  is  here,  the  district  school  pupil,  ever  equal  to  the  occa 
sion,  financier,  law  maker,  an  alumnus  and  treasurer  of  Middlebury 
College,  the  Hon.  L.  D.  Eldridge.  He  is  pleasingly  associated 
with  the  boy  of  ten  years  who  was  to  be  one  of  the  young  orators 
i  on  the  last  school  day.5  The  remaining  actors  were  absent  from 
fright  or  allured  by  sports,  and  I  found  Master  Eldridge,  'the  boy 
father  of  the  man/  solus,  and  with  eloquent  aptness  declaiming: 
1  The  boy  stood  on  the  burning  deck  whence  all  but  him  had  fled ' ; 
and,  knowing  the  boy,  I  confidently  predict  he  will  never  hie  to 
Canada,  nor  vacate  his  trust  so  long  as  he  can  mine  in  your  pleth 
oric  pockets,  nor  fail  to  linger  at  the  homes  where  there  is  a  ray 
of  hope  in  bequest  or  codicil  for  the  grand  historic  college  of  his 
love." 

It  is  a  part  of  the  story  that  I  "boarded  'round,"  and  was  paid 
$10  a  month  (it  being  my  first  school),  and,  as  a  poor  financier,  I 
paid  it  out  for  the  first  broadcloth  suit  in  the  hard  year  of  1838, 
with  the  ambitious  device  to  win  a  suit,  by  delicate  attentions 
(easily  surmised) ,  which,  by  good  fortune,  at  my  age,  were  not  a 
successful  venture. 

Upon  returning  to  my  guardian,  there  were  sharp  words 
between  us,  which  severed  our  relations,  and  under  my  guardian's 
protest  and  threat,  I  left  for  Castleton  Seminary,  then  a  famed 
school  of  Vermont.  I  took  up  Latin  and  algebra,  but  retired  from 
the  rough  preceptor  to  my  old  home  in  the  autumn,  with  medical 
books  and  an  engagement  to  teach  school  for  the  winter  in  Wal- 
tham,  a  lonely  spot  near  by.  There  I  felt  as  imprisoned,  even 
envying  the  cawing  crows  in  the  field,  and  the  nimble  squirrels  in 
the  trees  their  antics,  cracking  walnuts  in  sight  of  myself,  a  caged, 
yet  voluntary  prisoner.  Medical  books  I  read  during  my  leisure, 
with  a  high  interest,  which  I  thus  gave  in  a  letter  not  long  ago : 

HOW    NEAR    I    CAME    TO    BECOMING    AN    M.  D. 

Dear  Children : 

Did  I  ever  tell  you  my  narrow  escape  from  being  a  compound  "saw-bone  pill 
doctor  ?"  Somewhat  of  personal  gratitude  mingled  with  thankful  emotion,  when 
I  consider  the  escape  of  possible  victims,  prompts  a  story. 


20  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

In  the  autumn  of  1839,  after  a  return  from  Castleton  Academy,  our  haying 
season  over,  I  heard  the  loose  talk  of  the  street  boys,  "that  they  might  have  to 
steal  a  horse  to  get  their  names  in  the  papers."  Thinking  to  secure  fame  in 
another  role,  I  decided  to  hecome  a  physician.  It  was  an  easier  way  than  going 
through  college,  and  the  road  was  not  so  long  by  years  and  the  boy's  fever  of  seven 
teen  was  on  !  "  Can't  wait !  "  Like  many  children,  I  said  not  a  word  to  mother, 
for  she  had  a  horror  of  doctors,  and  secretly  had  pitched  a  higher  key  for  her  boy 
who  had  not  impaled  flies  with  pins  as  an  amusement,  nor  was  even  an  actor  in 
the  blood-flowing  incident  to  the  slaughter  of  fowls  for  the  table.  I  struck  out  and 
took  advice  of  the  lamented,  good  Dr.  Smith.  He  knew  I  could  shear  sheep,  was 
a  master  of  a  horse,  and  seemed  flattered  that  I  preferred  being  a  student,  to  recite 
every  other  day,  and  accompany  him  upon  calls  and  surgical  visits.  His  library 
was  fair  and  skeletons  in  duplicate  were  at  my  command.  Under  the  cover  of 
night  I  took  a  book  home  and  was  ready  for  a  recitation  by  night  study,  before 
advising  with  the  family.  Then  the  doctor  made  the  proffer  of  a  skeleton,  the 
"human  frame  divine,"  which  was  to  dangle  in  my  room  as  an  object  lesson.  By 
an  oversight  it  was  not  hidden,  but  laid  on  my  bed  to  affright  (not  purposely) 
mother,  as  she  came  into  my  room.  She  said,  "  I  cannot  choose  for  you  and  have 
nothing  to  say,  sorry  as  I  am  that  the  glitter  of  the  tower  of  the  Middlebury  Col 
lege  reflected  on  your  chamber  window,  does  not  inspire  you  to  strike  higher."  I 
said  my  guardian  would  do  nothing  to  help  and  our  income  was  small,  and  I  could 
teach  winters  and  take  nothing  from  the  farm.  The  reply  was,  "It  is  little  I 
want  and  I  can  trust,  even  when  the  purse  is  empty  and  we  are  left  with  a  few 
sheep  and  the  cows."  I  had  no  argument  and  only  shame  kept  me  from  yielding 
to  the  maternal  wish.  There  seemed  a  reconciliation  when  the  Doctor  would  say, 
"  The  boy  comes  on  well  with  the  books";  but  having  been  out  attending  a  sur 
gical  nasal  operation,  my  preceptor  could  not  say  I  was  in  ecstasy  over  the  practice. 

My  books  were  taken  along  to  the  district  school,  where  I  taught  in  winter, 
and  I  made  my  stay  with  Dr.  Bullard  a  portion  of  the  time.  He  had  a  wide  prac 
tice  and  was  conscientiously  solicitous  for  his  patients,  and  seemed  to  have  no  con 
trol  of  time  night  or  day,  which  was  a  vassalage  that  was  repulsive.  In  church 
there  was  no  sense  of  security — a  stir  or  a  late  arrival  would  turn  the  Doctor's  head, 
expecting  a  call — filling  a  position  singular  for  unrest.  This  circumstance  I  men 
tioned,  to  gain  the  reply,  "  I  have  not  been  my  own  man  for  twenty  years.  I  can 
make  little  calculation  and  am  denied  making  visits,  and  great  ills  break  forth  in 
storms  which  I  must  face  ;  besides,  Sunday  is  the  special  day  when  all  chronics 
want  medication."  The  picture  was  before  me —  a  slave  in  the  mill  —  and  I  was 
welding  the  chains  with  full  warning  of  a  life  of  vassalage,  and  I  closed  the  book 
with  the  remark,  "I  have  wrestled  with  muscle-insertions  ;  can  name  the  bones, 
blundering  with  little  Latin,  and  less  Greek,  so  far,  to  stop  short  of  the  parchment 
of  a  doctor."  From  that  moment,  visions  of  blood,  groans  of  the  sick,  fevered  and 
expiring  breath  gave  place  to  a  higher  mission  than  mere  physical  study  con 
fronted  with  the  uncertainties  of  medicine,  a  twin  profession  to  the  uncertainties 
of  law.  Dr.  Holmes,  of  poetic  fame  and  professor  at  Harvard,  had  not  then  said  : 
"If  the  entire  Materia  Medica  were  thrown  into  the  sea  it  would  be  better  for  men 
and  worse  for  the  fishes." 

My  decision  was  a  set-back  for  my  old  preceptor,  Dr.  Smith,  for  he  had  hinted 
that  his  gray  hairs  would  call  for  a  partner.  I  recall  that  he  predicted  business 
success,  without  a  prophecy  or  guess  as  to  the  fate  of  the  patients.  A  compound 
blessing  is  all  I  have  to  see  in  retrospect,  having  a  surmise  how  often  the  wolf 
would  have  been  at  the  door  of  the  family,  for  I  doubt  a  faculty  to  have  collected 
enough  bills  to  have  kept  horse  for  the  rider,  and  materials  for  even  homeopathic 
pills. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  21 

The  great  log-cabin  Harrison  campaign  was  on,  and  boys  of 
spirit  took  part  either  in  singing  songs,  or  sleeping  by  initiation 
in  a  log  cabin,  said  to  be  with  not  strict  reverence,  "like  the  gates 
of  Gospel  grace,  open  night  and  day."     It  was  a  frolic  —  a  political 
carnival  —  when  the  hard  times  were  forgotten  in  the  hope  of  a 
" change  to  bring  some  change";  hunters  could  find  sale  for  the 
emblematic  coons,  and  old  topers  had  a  broad  smile,  readily  doff 
ing  their  political  coats  under  the  inspiration  of  hard  cider,  coming 
forth  from  the  cellars  in  contribution  to  the  cause.     Democrats 
could  not  indulge  in  singing,  and  their  drinks  were  presumably  to 
drown  impending  sorrow  in  defeat.     The  Burlington  mass  meet 
ing,  which  took  near  a  week,  was  a  sample.     Carriage  and  wagon 
trips  of  a  hundred  miles  were  made.     I  left  in  the  Vergennes  pro 
cession  at  daylight,  and  we  were  five  hours  in  going  twenty  miles, 
in  clouds  of  dust.     The  ex-Governor,  Ezra  Meech,  came  into  the 
procession  at  the  front  of  his  log  cabin,   drawn  by  a  string  of 
twenty  yoke  of  oxen,  that  seemed  to  keep  step  to  music.     In  the 
city  the   noise   was   almost   deafening.     Bells   were   rung,   steam, 
whistles  blew,  and  cannon  boomed,  answered  by  New  York  guns 
across  the  lake.     Every  craft  on  the  lake  seemed  enlisted  for  the 
day,  and  the  thousands  of  teams  were  taken  to  the  country  to  find 
room  and  food.     Solomon  Foote,  of  Rutland,  later  and  long  United 
States  Senator,  presided,  and  used  his  skill  and  wonderful  voice 
with  effect.     Speaking  of  it,  twenty-five  years  after,  he  said  it  was 
the  proudest  day  of  his  life,  and  the  largest  meeting  he  had  ever 
seen.     This  was  his  timely  speech,  with  a  voice  on  a  high  key, 
resonant  and  bold  :     "  The  freemen  of  Vermont  will  come  to  order 
—  I  see  you  are  all  here!"     There  was  a  sea  of  faces,  hilarious 
shouts,  music,  vocal  and  martial,  a  caricature  of  the  gold  spoon, 
and  impoverishing  free-trade  policy  —  there  was  the  climax  of  an 
uprising  without  a  parallel  in  our  annals. 

The  historic  ball  was  "kept  a  rolling"  from  the  ocean  west 
ward  with  increasing  furor,  to  the  dismay  of  veteran  court  poli 
ticians.  Then  came  the  Maine  election.  It  ended  Democratic 
resistance  to  a  sweeping  wave,  and  that  story-teller,  Senator  J.  W. 
Nye,  referring  to  his  last  Democratic  speech  said,  "My  heart 
sank  within  me."  There  was  an  inelegant  but  popular  song  of 
clubs  in  halls,  and  by  thousands  at  camp-fires.  The  verse  based  on 
the  Old  Pine  State,  ran  as  follows : 


22  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

"  And  have  you  heard  the  news  from  Maine, 

And  what  old  Maine  can  do  ? 
She  went  hell-bent  for  Governor  Kent, 
And  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too, 
And  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too." 

Our  historians  tell  of  an  era  of  financial  prosperity  following 
Harrison's  election,  and  a  national  calamity  by  the  death  of  the 
President  a  month  after  inauguration.  It  was  soon  discovered  that 
the  "Tyler  too"  had  become  an  ambitious  marplot  —  the  twin  acci 
dent  to  the  later  Andrew  Johnson. 


CHAPTER  II. 

DRIFTING    FKOM    HOME. 

A  Student — Moot  Courts — First  Visit  to  New  York — Notable 
Events  and  Persons  of  Half  a  Century  Ago — Oneida  Institute — 
Picture  of  Reformers  and  Orators,  Gerritt  Smith,  Alvin  Stewart, 
President  Beriah  Green. 

THE  death  of  my  eldest  brother  at  the  South,  not  only  brought 
a  new  burden  of  responsibility,  but  unsettled  plans  for  the  future. 
In  1840,  I  entered  the  Classical  School  of  B.  F.  Allen,  in  the  city 
of  Vergennes,  but  not  to  secure  all  the  benefits  of  the  closest  appli 
cation.  The  master  was  easy,  classmates  were  jovial,  added  to 
which  there  were  the  dissipating  allurements  of  mock  courts  at  late 
hours.  The  young  attorneys  and  their  students  and  clerks  could 
afford  the  recreation,  but  not  so  well  could  the  candidate  for  admis 
sion  to  college.  The  farces  of  the  time  afforded  entertainment, 
and  gave  practice  in  public  speaking,  but  involved  mental  dissipa 
tion,  rather  than  proper  discipline.  The  next  school  engagement 
was  a  pleasant  one,  with  good  wages,  in  Middlebury.  The  term 
was  sadly  ended  by  the  decease  of  my  brother,  Freeman,  who  'died 
at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  at  Norfolk,  Virginia.  With  the  double 
purpose  of  caring  for  his  effects  and  entering  Yale  College,  I  left 
home,  making  a  stay  for  several  weeks  in  the  great  city  of  New 
York,  a  new  world  to  the  country  boy. 

It  was  a  bright,  spring  morning  when  I  stepped  from  the  Hud 
son  river  steamboat  upon  the  wharf ;  pushing  my  way  in  the  crowd, 
amidst  the  howls  of  hackmen,  I  turned  to  purchase  some  tempting 
fruit,  and  discovered  that  my  purse  was  gone.  I  had  read  of  New 
York  pickpockets,  and  the  cold  sweat  stood  on  my  brow  at  the 
thought  of  being  a  stranger,  penniless  in  a  great  city.  Without  a 
recollection  of  taking  my  pocketbook  from  under  my  pillow  in  the 
berth,  I  rushed  back  to  find  it  undisturbed  where  I  had  left  it. 
My  gratitude  was  boundless,  first  lavishing  a  surprising  sum  upon 
the  chambermaid,  and  then  with  an  offer  of  a  bank  bill  to  the  clerk, 


24  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

who  replied,  "They  wanted  no  bounty  for  being  honest,"  which 
was  a  plea  for  human  nature,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  not  always  truth 
fully  in  the  line  of  some  facts  in  my  later  experiences. 

WHAT    OF    THE    CITY    OF    FIFTY    YEARS    AGO  ? 

Stages  rumbling  over  the  pavements  of  cobble-stones,  seemed 
almost  deafening.  Then  there  was  a  stench  from  the  gas,  one  of 
the  most  offensive  of  all  odors  known  in  human  life  or  from  the 
laboratory  of  science.  Water  was  drawn  by  wooden  pumps  from 
the  city  wells,  (most  detestable  to  one  accustomed  to  the  pure  flow 
from  the  mountains),  and  in  association  with  poor  drainage  by  sew 
ers,  and  the  burial  of  the  city  dead  —  Greenwood  and  other  ceme 
teries  being  but  in  incipient  stages  of  their  beauty. 

During  my  stay  in  the  city,  I  was  not  only  cautious,  but  con 
scientious,  and  sought  to  heed  the  counsel  on  leaving  home,  which 
was  "to  be  sure  and  hear  Dr.  Gardner  Spring  preach,"  the  most 
noted  divine  in  the  city.  Sunday  morning,  after  a  long  hunt,  I 
found  the  old  brick  church,  since  given  way  to  the  New  York 
Times  block.  Gaily-caparisoned  horses  and  elegant  carriages  were 
by  the  walk  in  charge  of  liveried  coachmen,  and,  to  be  sure  I  was 
to  find  Dr.  Spring,  I  asked  if  that  was  the  church.  "Does  he 
preach  to-day?"  "Yes,  this  is  his  carriage."  Yet,  some  in 
doubt,  I  said,  "Why  don't  you  hitch  and  go  in?"  This  caused 
a  laugh  from  the  company  of  whips,  their  spokesman  replying, 
"We  don't  go  to  church,  we  hold  horses."  A  verse  of  the  old 
song,  ridiculing  the  President,  came  fresh  to  me,  as  sung  in  the 
Harrison  campaign : 

"Martin's  steeds  impatient  wait 
At  the  palace  door, 
Outriders  behind  the  coach 
And  lackeys  on  before." 

I  attended  the  church  service,  and  the  doctor  fell,  in  my  judg 
ment,  below  his  reputation  in  the  pulpit  as  a  speaker.  It  was  a 
sermon,  I  guessed,  about  the  heathen,  but  not  so  sure  as  was  Dr.  E. 
S.  Storrs  forty  years  ago,  who,  when  asked  the  subject  of  the  ser 
mon  to  which  he  listened  in  his  own  pulpit,  said :  "  It  was  about 
the  Jews;  I  know  that  was  the  subject,  for  the  doctor  told  me  so 
as  we  passed  out  of  the  church. " 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEAES.  25 

That  company  of  carriage  drivers,  I  mentioned  when  writing 
home,  were  perhaps  as  needy  as  the  foreign  heathen,  and  I  wrote 
out  the  sarcastic  reproof  given  by  John  Randolph,  of  Old  Virginia. 
The  planters'  ladies  were  met  to  prepare  clothing  for  the  poor  Rev 
olutionary  Greeks.  Randolph  declined  to  aid  their  object  with  his 
purse,  and  as  he  passed  out  espied  a  crowd  of  squalid  negro  chil 
dren,  when  he  pushed  open  the  door,  and  shouted :  "  The  Greeks ! 
the  Greeks  !  Ladies,  they're  at  your  door." 

Charles  O'Connor,  the  Irish  lawyer,  was  rising  to  fame.  I  was 
fortunate  in  hearing  him  in  able  forensic  arguments ;  tall,  elegant 
in  diction,  with  a  dash  of  youth.  Many  years  later,  I  heard  him 
as  the  venerable  advocate,  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  and  at  a  dinner  table  socially,  when  I  told  him  of  my  early 
admiration.  "Ah  !"  he  replied,  "the  change  —  my  eye  is  now  dim, 
and  normal  force  wasted.  Once  they  tried  me  by  the  press,  and 
their  praise  was  welcome,  no  doubt.  Now  I  am  before  a  bench  on 
trial;  not  after  cases,  but  anxious  to  win  what  I  have.  Dullness 
in  court  will  be  my  role  at  the  end  of  a  brief  pilgrimage."  Of 
course,  to  this  I  did  not  in  courtesy  assent,  in  the  presence  of  one 
so  genteel  and  suave,  much  as  I  disliked  his  political  Bourbonism. 

Commodore  Cornelius  Vanderbilt  was  then  pointed  out,  and 
at  that  day  little  above  the  rank  of  a  "steamboat  man."  He  had 
a  striking  face,  a  piercing  eye,  set  off  by  a  white,  ministerial  cra 
vat,  little  consonant  with  the  connoisseur  of  fast  horses,  and  an 
adept  with  cards;  yet  loyal  and  liberal,  presenting  the  govern 
ment,  in  its  need,  with  a  steam  vessel  in  war  time,  and  endowing 
the  Vanderbilt  University  at  Nashville,  Tennessee,  bearing  his 
name.  Hon.  John  I.  Blair  tells  me  that  in  his  early  career,  com 
ing  over  to  Staten  Island  from  New  Jersey,  the  Commodore  would 
give  him  a  boat  ride  to  New  York  City  early,  for  a  silver  quarter, 
that  he  might  as  a  country  merchant  be  the  first  on  the  market 
with  butter  and  eggs,  having  called  out  to  Bill  to  put  out  Mr. 
Blair's  horses,  and  mother  to  get  breakfast,  which  she  did  barefoot, 
and  in  an  out-kitchen,  innocent  of  any  floor ;  glad  to  get  up  and 
get  breakfast  for  a  quarter,  by  the  light  of  the  moon.  Then  there 
was  the  unfortunate  son,  Cornelius  (brother  of  the  better  known 
than  all,  the  deceased  William  H.  Vanderbilt),  whom  I  knew  as 
the  Western  traveling  friend  of  Horace  Greeley.  He  was  great 
hearted,  with  sundry  misfortunes,  else  Mr.  Greeley  would  not  have 
been,  as  was  said,  a  foolish  endorser  in  the  sum  of  twenty-five 


26  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

thousand  dollars,  which  to  the  credit  of  the  millionaire,  let  it  be 
said,  was  paid  in  full  to  the  family,  on  Mr.  Greeley's  decease. 
The  unfortunate  Cornelius  spent  an  evening  at  my  house  in  Iowa. 
What  an  elegant  story-teller,  and  volatile  spirit!  "Everybody 
knows  brother  Bill,  who  got  deep  into  dad's  affection ;  I  do.  But 
suppose  he  don't  like  me.  We  had  one  mother  who  never  forgot 
Cornele."  His  head  dropped,  the  tears  falling  with  a  sigh,  remind 
ing  me  of  Hamlet's  words  : 

"  One  that  was  a  woman ; 
But  rest  her  soul — she's  dead." 

My  emotional  guest,  stricken  by  a  temporary  fit,  fell  upon  the 
floor.  Prom  him  I  turn  with  pleasure,  reminded  that  William  H. 
Vanderbilt,  through  Chauncey  M.  Depew,  gave  me  a  thousand  dol 
lars,  and  promised  more,  to  repair  our  college,  which  was  destroyed 
by  a  tornado.  His  son,  Cornelius,  is  named  the  philanthropist, 
and  his  brothers  promise,  in  munificent  charities  and  service,  to 
hold  a  higher  rank  than  the  historic  founder  of  the  family,  whom  I 
remember. 

Far  back  then,  in  1841,  there  was  no  Vanderbilt  palace,  nor 
bronze  doors,  as  in  1889,  leading  to  the  famous  Art  Gallery.  Now 
there  is  the  delicate  and  double  office  in  denial,  as  well  as  in  dis 
pensing  charities.  Is  there  a  greater  exemption  from  common 
frailties  and  ills  in  the  envied  palace,  than  that  enjoyed  by  the 
masses  ?  Not  long  ago,  on  New  Year's  Day,  there  was  a  long  line 
of  gaily-dressed  grandchildren  at  the  windows  of  the  Vanderbilt 
mansion,  witnessing  a  street  pageant.  My  companion,  an  M.  D., 
and  President  of  the  New  York  Art  Club,  took  little  interest  in 
the  juveniles,  saying,  "  Dead  Cornelius  was  princely,  and  the  crowd 
envy  the  children;  I  don't.  Even  their  money  will  keep  them 
effeminate;  they'll  have  the  colic  oftener  than  our  children,  and 
they  won't  look  or  feel  any  better  in  a  shroud." 

Burton*s  Theatre  was  only  a  name  for  Burton,  the  humorist, 
convulsing  in  laughter,  in  pantomime ;  and  it  was  a  popular  resort 
for  countrymen.  His  part  in  "  Toodles "  gave  him  fame  and  per 
sonality  next  to  that  of  Edwin  Forrest,  the  tragedian — the  inspirer 
of  a  swarm  of  amateurs  in  "  Bichard  the  Third."  Forrest  was  a 
star — Burton  the  idol  of  a  good  kind  of  play-goers  fifty  years  ago, 
who  always  cheered  the  exploit  of  Mrs.  Toodles  in  attending  auc 
tions,  and  buying  a  door-plate  at  a  great  bargain,  since,  with  the 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  27 

name  of  "  Thompson  "  engraved,  there  was  a  possibility  it  would 
come  in  use,  predicated  on  a  daughter  being  born  to  them,  grow 
ing  up,  and  marrying  a  Thompson.  It  was  a  most  convulsive 
story  on  the  stage,  and  I  have  found  the  points  often  like  handy 
change,  in  public  speaking,  on  hits  at  foolish  probabilities — not  the 
weather. 

THE    AMISTAD    STORY. 

A  black  man  —  a  real  African  I  saw,  and  it  was  Martin 
Cinque,  the  slave  mutineer.  The  slave  vessel  had  been  misguided 
by  the  overpowered  owners  to  Montauk  Point.  On  it  were  some 
fifty  men  who  were  kidnapped  for  the  Cuban  slave  market.  They 
had  risen  in  mutiny,  and  after  killing  the  captain  and  one  of  the 
crew,  had  trusted  the  threatened  owners  to  return  them  to  their 
country.  When  brought  before  one  Judson,  a  United  States  Dis 
trict  Judge,  the  verdict  was,  they  were  not  to  be  sent  to  Cuba  for 
trial  as  murderers  and  mutineers.  An  appeal  was  taken  to  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  where  John  Quincy  Adams, 
"the  old  man  eloquent/7  and  Hon.  R.  S.  Baldwin  argued  on  the 
popular  just  side,  and  the  prisoners  were  set  free  by  the  court. 
The  case  stirred  our  young  blood,  and  the  Amistad  case  came  to  be 
classed  v^ith  Med,  in  an  English  slave  trial ;  also  with  that  of  our 
Dred  Scott  and  Judge  Taney,  years  later. 

At  this  time,  the  Tappans  were  famous  in  New  York.  Arthur, 
the  silk  merchant,  as  an  abolitionist,  called  out  a  Southern  reward 
of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  his  abduction,  and  was  hon 
ored  by  a  pro-slavery  mob.  IJe  honored  himself  by  the  founding 
of  professorships  in  Auburn  Theological  Seminary  and  in  Oberlin, 
besides  other  great  gifts  for  those  days,  akin  to  the  aid  in  opening 
Broadway  Tabernacle,  a  spacious  building  for  popular  and  reform 
meetings. 

Lewis  Tappan  and  Rev.  Joshua  Leavitt  were  said  to  have  the 
Africans  in  charge,  as  they  raised  money  for  their  defense.  Mr. 
Tappan  had  brothers,  Benjamin,  senator  from  Ohio,  and  John  Tap- 
pan,  in  Boston ;  the  blood,  with  a  personal  knowledge  of  Louis  in 
later  years,  won  my  admiration.  If  there  was  an  escaping  fugi 
tive,  he  knew  through  Tappan  where  to  find  shelter.  Such  was 
the  merchant  who,  for  twenty  years,  was  treasurer  of  the  Amer 
ican  Missionary  Society  (I  think  without  pay),  and  who  holds 
rightfully  a  higher  place  in  our  eventful  annals  than  the  great 


28  '   REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   TEARS. 

lawyers  and  Vanderbilts.  Here  you  have  the  man  with  keen  eye, 
elegant  person,  overflowing  with  humor,  standing  beside  the  tall, 
liberated,  black  man,  Cinque.  "What  do  you  say  ?  They  are  like 
our  millions  whose  ancestors  were  brought  here  by  kidnappers. 
"Would  you  have  risen  if  doomed  to  slavery  ?  "  The  crowd  shouted 
"Yes!"  What  shall  we  do,  disperse  them,  poor  and  ignorant,  or 
educate  them  ?  The  response  was  "  Educate ! "  Then  give  us 
money  and  we  will  send  them  back  —  not  slaves  but  missionaries. 

Martin  Cinque  was  tall,  erect,  with  a  noble  brow,  and,  as  it 
was  learned  from  his  nation,  the  son  of  an  African  chief,  a  very 
prince  in  his  bearing,  and  was  the  mutinous  hero  of  that  day. 
From  this  sprang  the  Mendi- African  Mission. 

From  a  sight  of  the  lions  of  that  day,  since  so  often  described, 
I  turned,  taking  a  steamboat  for  New  Haven,  Connecticut.  Yale 
College  I  had  chosen,  but  did  not  spend  much  time  with  profess 
ors  and  about  the  buildings,  which  seemed  low  and  gloomy  (less 
attractive  than  the  elms),  and  they  were,  compared  with  their  pres 
ent  splendor. 

By  the  help  of  a  rather  free  Vermont  boy,  I  got  a  glimpse  of 
the  "  wild  ones,"  and  of  the  costly  scrapes  and  dangerous  episodes 
of  student  life.  To  be  rested  and  to  read  up  for  examination,  I 
took  the  cars  for  Meriden,  eighteen  miles,  it  being  my  first  railroad 
ride.  Here  I  found  my  favorite  cousin,  Miss  Fitch,  the  ward  of 
the  venerable  Rev.  Erastus  Ripley.  He  was  merry,  beguiling  me 
with  checkers  and  after-dinner  games,  varying  the  entertainment 
by  an  excited  discussion  as  an  anti-slavery  man  with  a  near  neigh 
bor,  Mr.  Booth,  deacon  and  bank  president.  My  situation  came 
up  on  review  —  age,  orphanage  and  aspirations  —  when  my  learned 
friend  feared  that  the  tone  of  student  morals  at  Yale  and  the  con 
servatism  in  the  old  courses  of  study  would  endanger  the  boy's 
future.  Of  course,  he  was  a  partisan  radical. 

"What  are  years  in  Latin  and  Greek  to  be  in  the  next  fifty 
years  ?  Slavery  is  to  be  kept  under,  Texas  kept  out,  church  made 
bold  and  political  platforms  expurgated,  and  brave,  good  speakers 
will  be  in  more  demand  than  classic  book-worms.  Hear  what  that 
scholar  of  Yale,  Dr.  Grimke,  of  South  Carolina,  says :  <  I  prefer 
Sir  Walter  Scott  to  Homer.  Then  for  smutty  old  poetry,  give 
place  to  the  Bible  in  Greek  and  Hebrew/  I  agree  with  him. 
Lawyers  are  too  plenty.  Therefore  give  us  a  race  of  students  with 
backbone  and  courage  for  the  coming  great  days." 


REMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY   YEARS.  29 

So  I  remember.  And  there  was  a  mention  of  Mr.  Hough,  who 
had  gone  out  as  financier  at  Oneida  Institute,  near  Utica,  to  help 
Beriah  Green,  president,  one  of  the  finest  of  scholars  and  grandest 
of  men. 

Said  the  venerable  Mr.  Kipley :  "  My  son,  I  have  placed  money 
in  that  college,  where  there  is  a  farm  to  use  the  muscle,  and  good 
professors  with  a  high  moral  tone.  Come,  what  do  you  say  ?  I 
have  no  boy  and  I  advise  you  to  go  there."  My  reply  was  that  I 
knew  no  one.  "I  do,  and  will  give  you  a  letter  to  President 
Green  ;  and  if  on  trial  you  don't  like  it,  I  will  pay  for  the  jour 
ney."  The  hearty  earnestness  of  the  old  divine  captured  me,  and 
I  was  even  then  quite  hospitable  to  his  radical  ideas,  and  said: 
"Write  the  letter  and  I  will  go."  The  journey  was  made  by  way 
of  New  York,  and  I  left  the  steamer  at  Albany,  taking  a  canal 
boat  ride  of  one  hundred  miles  for  Whitesboro.  I  handed  my 
introduction  to  Mr.  Green,  who  was  most  genial  and  gave  me  a 
temporary  stay  at  the  house,  where  the  winsome  daughters  did 
much  to  mitigate  homesickness  and  unrest  with  new  school  associ 
ations,  the  product  of  radical  ideas  and  a  new  social  birth  of 
society. 

Between  our  times  and  those  of  half  a  century  ago,  there  seems 
only  the  comparison  between  the  time  of  sowing  and  that  of  the 
harvest.  Great  ideas  were  getting  rooted  in  the  national  soil. 
Eadical  reforms  now  measurably  accomplished,  were  then  under 
debate.  Men  lauded  now,  were  then  ignored  and  despised.  The 
first  prophets  are  never  popular.  Questions  of  reform,  of  temper 
ance,  and  their  kindred  themes  were  then  unsolved,  even  more 
than  now.  Eestless  minds  were  breaking  loose  from  the  dictation 
of  conservatives  upon  the  wrong  side  of  morals.  Compromises 
were  in  the  air.  The  pooling  of  moral  issues  was  the  dominant 
business  of  the  generation,  at  the  expense  of  the  truth.  The  great 
educational  and  benevolent  organizations  were  too  generally  found 
upon  the  side  of  doubtful  conservatism.  The  curse  of  slavery 
reached  many  indirect  issues. 

It  was  an  heroic  age — an  age  in  which  principles  of  truth  were 
striving  for  recognition  in  the  lives  of  those  bold  enough  to  be 
right,  rather  than  popular.  Among  the  few  institutions  that  dared 
to  risk  their  success  upon  the  carrying  out  of  ideas  hostile  in  their 
time,  was  the  Oneida  Institute,  at  Whitesboro,  New  York.  It  was 
the  hot-bed  of  radicalism  as  it  existed  at  that  day.  Many  of  its 


30  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

ideas  have  become  a  part  of  the  national  life ;  while  others  are  still 
on  debatable  ground.  There  was  a  heavy  brain  at  its  head ;  and 
there  were  great  men  back  of  it.  The  Oneida  Institute  was 
attempting  the  unsolved  question  of  combining  education  with 
manual  labor.  Its  chosen  curriculum  was  in  favor  of  the  lan 
guages  of  the  living,  and  sacred  languages,  rather  than  of  the  dead ; 
it  was  too  far  ahead  of  the  times.  But  whatever  the  question  of 
its  experiments,  its  avowed  object  was  never  lost  sight  of.  It  was 
the  home  of  freedom;  its  pupils  were  trained  for  practical  men  in 
the  coming  struggles  of  the  Republic. 

The  influence  of  such  an  institution  was  never  lost  upon  the 
young  student  who  turned  his  back  upon  Yale,  to  gain  the  advan 
tages  under  such  an  instructor  as  the  renowned  President,  Eev. 
Beriah  Green.  Added  to  his  natural  intuitions  upon  the  side  of 
freedom,  were  the  instructions  here  received.  The  Institute  lost 
its  peculiar  status  a  generation  ago ;  but  among  those  who  sat  at 
the  feet  of  President  Green,  its  principles  have  lived  in  power. 

THE  STUDENTS. 

Such  a  motley  company !  Manual  labor,  and  radicalism  as  to 
studies  and  slavery,  had  gathered  a  large  school.  Young  casuists, 
others  the  wards  of  rich  reformers,  not  to  mention  a  class  sent  to  a 
good  place  for  safety  —  fit  subjects  for  rustication.  I  found  in  the 
study  of  the  pupils  object  lessons  related  to  the  ludicrous.  There 
were  an  emancipator's  boys  from  Cuba;  mulattoes  removed  from 
their  sable  mother  —  illegitimates  (said  to  be),  under  an  alias; 
the  high  tempered  Spanish  student,  Slingerland  his  name,  whose 
slinging  an  iron  poker  at  me  left  an  impression ;  then  an  Indian, 
with  that  inelegant  name,  Kunkapot,  the  calling  of  which  created 
a  laugh;  black  men  who  had  served  as  sailors,  or  as  city  hack- 
men,  also  the  purest  Africans  escaped  from  slavery,  of  a  class  like 
the  eloquent  Garnet,  the  protege  of  Joseph  Sturge,  the  English 
reformer;  sons  of  the  American  radicals,  Bible  students  scanning 
Hebrew  verse  with  ease,  in  place  of  Latin  odes ;  enthusiasts,  plow- 
boys  and  printers  ^  also  real  students  of  elegant  tastes,  captured  by 
the  genius  of  President  Green.  I  do  not  know  that  there  was  a 
man  looking  fiercer  by  the  wearing  of  a  mustache,  not  then  in  fash 
ion,  or  one  failing  to  be  guyed  who  had  any  foreign  foppery  airs. 
The  most  were  real  Democrats,  save  as  to  politics.  Pedigree  did 


MR.    GRINNELL  AS  A  STUDEXT. 
(From  an  old  drawing.) 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS.  31 

not  furnish  envied  notoriety,  and  there  was  not  the  least  social  or 
official  toleration  of  a  lazy,  dissolute  character.  The  non-resistance 
doctrines  of  the  Garrison  and  the  peace  party  were  not  welcome  to 
me  whose  blood  leaped  in  a  warm,  youthful  challenge.  Such  were 
the  collegians  without  base  ball,  yacht  recreation,  or  gymnasium; 
but  with  a  hand  fire-engine  there  was  diversion  in  quickening  the 
step,  or  lowering  the  hauteur  of  pretenders;  occasionally  giving 
a  sprinkle,  if  not  a  forced  ablution  to  a  flunk  in  our  impromptu 
debates,  which  were  both  novel  and  serviceable.  There  was  a  class 
of  inceptive  pedagogues  who  were  primed  for  a  First  of  August 
emancipation,  or  a  Fourth  of  July  address ;  Henry  B.  Stanton,  of 
our  creed  and  clan,  being  the  model  orator,  and  Theodore  Weld, 
the  radical  oracle. 

It  was  the  day  of  the  ecclesiastical  excommunication  of  temper 
ance  and  abolition  agitators.  Kunaway  slaves  and  pro-slavery 
mobs  furnished  food  for  morbid  appetites,  and  Birney,  the  Ken 
tucky  emancipator,  became  a  lion  in  the  path,  rather  than  a  mere 
diversion  to  the  leaders  who  were  in  a  Presidential  race  with  Polk 
and  Clay,  rivals  in  subserviency  to  the  slaveholding  power. 

It  is  history  that  the  hobbies  of  Oneida  Institute  furnished 
what  became  the  horses  on  which  politicians  afterward  compla 
cently  rode  to  place  and  power,  oblivious  of  those  who  once  stood 
in  the  breach  with  heroism,  to  rescue  our  trailed  flag  and  honor 
from  the  jeers  of  the  world.  In  that  whirl  there  was  a  fascination. 
I  found  more  diversion  in  debates  and  in  the  writing  of  colloquies 
for  exhibitions,  than  in  severe  studies.  In  Greek  and  Hebrew  I 
made  fair  progress  only,  and  graduated  without  a  diploma,  only 
because  the  State  Regents,  to  punish  radical  innovation,  had 
denied  the  Board  of  Trustees  power  to  confer  degrees.  Thus  for 
the  honorary  degree  of  A.  M.,  I  was  indebted  to  the  favor  of  Mid- 
dlebury  College,  Vermont,  some  years  later. 

Among  the  heroic  and  notable  men  of  their  time,  stands  a 
remarkable  trio.  Each  in  his  own  sphere  was  a  power :  Green,  the 
scholar;  Stewart,  the  legal  genius;  Smith,  the  millionaire-philan 
thropist  ;  so  they  are  classed  to-day. 

THE    DISTINGUISHED    TRIO. 

Gerrit  Smith,  of  Peterboro,  1ST.  Y.,  was  a  distinguished  patron 
and  ardent  friend  of  President  Green,  and  a  frequent  speaker 


32  REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

before  the  students  of  Oneida  College,  a  Hamilton  College  scholar 
of  distinction,  a  patron  in  the  heirship  of  townships  and  lands,  and 
a  generous,  active  philanthropist,  all  conspiring  to  throw  about 
him  the  glamour  of  a  real  hero.  I  never  heard  a  finer  toned,  mel 
lifluous  voice,  nor  was  he  less  striking  in  elegance  of  person  and 
gentlemanly  suavity.  It  was  in  resisting  pro-slavery  mobs  and 
in  defence  of  freedom  of  speech,  that  he  came  first  to  be  the 
champion  of  human  rights,  and  made  choice  of  the  soeiet}?"  of  com 
mon  people,  rather  than  to  dwell  in  the  seclusion  of  his  palace, 
which  he  closed,  and  later  gave  to  a  dissenting  congregation  for 
worship,  choosing  a  humbler  home  with  leisure  for  greater  service 
to  reform.  The  proffer  of  a  senatorship  or  of  a  governor's  chair, 
was  no  attraction ;  and  it  was  only  on  the  dawn  of  a  new  era  that 
he  assented  to  serve  in  Congress,  developing  a  versatile  speaker, 
an  original  and  bold  legislator.  It  was  an  idiosyncrasy  in  his 
character  to  abjure  the  maxim  that  "consistency  is  a  jewel,"  tak 
ing  pride  in  those  moral  perceptions  which  made  it  a  truism  "  He 
who  never  changes  his  opinion  never  corrects  mistakes/'  That  he 
was  the  Chesterfield  radical  of  his  day,  is  cognate  to  the  fact  that 
he  was  the  wealthiest  American  of  the  munificent  givers  to  educa 
tion  and  the  cause  of  temperance  and  freedom.  His  epitaph  might 
read:  " The  cause  which  he  knew  not  he  searched  out."  Wealth 
never  ministered  to  pride,  defeat  never  embittered  the  spirit, 
hushed  his  voice,  or  enfeebled  his  blows.  In  boldness,  he  was  the 
companion  of  Horace  Greeley,  in  going  on  the  bail  bond  of  Jeffer 
son  Davis,  who  became  a  huge  political  elephant,  long  imprisoned, 
when  demanding  a  trial.  Secretly  he  was  the  patron  of  John 
Brown  in  Kansas  (I  have  it  from  Brown's  own  lips),  but  of  the 
purposed  raid  in  Virginia  he  was  not  aware.  Mr.  Smith  gave 
thousands  of  acres  of  land  to  make  homes  for  colored  people,  and 
died  in  1874,  leaving  a  son,  Mr.  Green  Smith,  named  for  his 
friend,  and  a  daughter,  Mrs.  Miller,  of  Utica,  New  York. 

Alvin  Stewart,  of  Utica,  a  witty,  eloquent  and  retired  lawyer 
and  reformer,  was  a  character.  A  few  of  his  hits,  passing  like 
good  currency  among  the  students,  I  may  give  prefatory.  At  the 
conventions,  on  calls  for  donations,  his  tact  and  drollery  would  be 
known  with  a  solemn  look  and  magisterial  presence.  When  tak 
ing  names  for  donations,  a  colored  student  came  up  with  a  five- 
dollar  contribution.  "Your  name,  sir?"  "Prime,  is  the  name." 
"A  prime  gentleman  whose  paper  wants  no  indorsement."  Next, 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  33 

Freeman,  a  jet  black:  "This  is  to  be  the  cognomen  of  your  race  — 
a  little  off  color  just  now."  The  city  of  Utica  came  up  with  its 
mob  spirit.  "This  is  not  the  poetic  ' pent-up  Utica ';  our  scoun 
drels  only  burnish  their  fame  on  departure."  Then  court  wit  is 
remembered.  The  question  was  as  to  ownership  and  discovery  of 
a  spring.  The  counsel  had  not  the  most  savory  reputation;  there 
upon  Mr.  Stewart  asked:  "Suppose  Satan  had  appeared  in  person 
and  claimed  he  had  taken  the  first  drink  from  the  spring,  and 
employed  my  learned  counsel  to  enforce  his  claim,  as  I  have  no 
doubt  he  would,  could  that  be  called  a  precedent,  a  law,  to  keep 
out  my  Christian  client  ?  "  This  character  was  given  to  a  defend 
ant:  "Whatever  his  family  or  profession,  don't  overlook  his  misfor 
tune  as  that  of  a  peripatetic  somnambulist  and  '  wanderer  up-stairs 
and  down-stairs  and  in  the  lady's  chamber7."  Mr.  Stewart's 
appearance  at  our  college  and  as  president  of  state  temperance  and 
anti-slavery  conventions,  brought  an  ovation,  and  made  variety 
where  the  voices  of  the  eloquent,  elegant  Stanton,  the  solemn 
Goodell,  the  logic  of  Green,  and  the  rotundity  of  Gerritt  Smith 
were  heard  and  seen.  His  elegant  palatial  home,  variegated  in 
color  by  stale  mobocratic  eggs,  had  an  owner  who  towered  then 
justly  above  all  other  notables  of  that  city  whom  I  afterward 
knew  —  Governor  Seymour,  Senators  Kernan  and  Conkling,  and 
Justice  Ward  Hunt  —  as  did  his  house  above  theirs,  less  conspicu 
ous  in  that  early  epoch.  Great  as  they  were,  they  can  never  be 
named  more  than  the  peer  of  Stewart  as  a  hero,  nor  have  they  left 
more  striking  proofs  of  an  orator.  Mr.  Stewart,  in  early  days, 
often  addressed  the  State  Legislature  on  radical  politics.  In  Ver 
mont,  the  old  men  remember  him  by  this  incident :  the  question 
was  up  of  forbidding  slaveholders  to  retain  a  claim  on  their  chat 
tels  while  in  the  North.  He  was  in  the  State  House  by  the 
mountain  range,  and  apostrophised :  "  Slavery  in  Vermont !  Clank 
ing  of  chains  on  the  soil  where  Seth  Warner  and  Ethan  Allen 
sleep?  No!"  Pausing  and  looking  out  of  the  window,  "Your 
old  mountains  would  hold  their  breath  and  refuse  to  send  forth  an 
echo  of  your  degradation !  "  He  died  too  soon,  without  witnessing 
the  fruition  of  his  hopes,  yet  not  to  be  forgotten. 

President  Beriah  Green  was  of  this  noted  triumvirate.  He 
gained  his  collegiate  education  in  Vermont,  and  was  for  years  a 
pastor,  until  called  to  a  professorship  in  Western  Eeserve  College. 
A  striking,  pleasant  face,  and  vivacious  manners,  were  in  happy 


34  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

association  with  the  scholar,  in  deep  sympathy  with  the  spirit  of 
Goethe,  the  .philosophy  of  Cold  ridge,  also  that  of  an  ardent  friend 
and  correspondent  of  the  English  rugged  Carlyle.  His  protest 
against  the  ethics  of  the  "tall  ecclesiastics"  was  more  than 
verbal  —  even  a  close  personal  alliance  with  great  reform,  disre 
garding  obloquy  and  sacrifice.  A  spirit  genial  as  the  summer  sun, 
proven  integrity,  varied  learning,  and  eloquence  reaching  sub 
limity,  would  have  made  him  a  striking  character  in  the  best  cir 
cles  of  citizens  and  reformers.  With  him,  work  had  little  less 
virtue  than  worship.  More  than  theories  were  held  in  regard  to 
the  value  of  manual  labor.  He  practiced  as  an  exemplar,  earning 
bread  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow.  Character  was  a  product  won  by 
sacrifice  at  the  "roaring  loom  of  time."  An  incident  in  society 
would  become  the  basis  of  a  sermon,  and  students,  alike  with  vet 
eran  agitators  and  scholars,  would  crowd  to  hear  the  more  than 
transcendental  oracle,  a  preacher  with  a  text,  "  Duty,  stern  daugh 
ter  of  the  voice  of  God."  In  his  career,  there  was  proof  of  the 
lion  heart,  for  he  knew  no  failure ;  and,  waiting  for  the  bright  day 
of  the  emancipation,  he  fell  as  he  lived,  while  making  a  speech 
against  the  licensing  of  saloons,  at  the  post  of  duty,  in  1874.  If 
his  life  was  not  an  epic,  neither  was  his  career  one  of  ambition, 
like  a  Cambyses,  marching  through  the  desert  to  awaken  the 
screams  of  hungry  vultures,  leaving  no  monument  but  a  Golgotha 
heap  of  human  sacrifices  —  nay,  it  was  of  a  white-winged  evangel 
pleading  for  the  poor,  and  for  Justice  in  the  temple  where  Liberty, 
with  the  weeds  of  widowhood,  had  long  stood  crownless.  The 
humorous  incidents  related  of  this  great  character  and  family,  were 
many.  An  old  student,  meeting  the  President  in  after  years,  lean 
ing  on  his  hoe,  and  wearing  a  high,  old-fashioned  hat,  heard  a 
young  son,  with  much  gravity,  while  violently  knocking  off  the  hat, 
say  :  "  Have  I  not  told  you  repeatedly  not  to  be  seen  with  that  old 
hat  on  again,  especially  in  company  ?  "  The  reproof  was :  "  What 
do  you  mean,  John,  by  such  rudeness?"  At  breakfast,  after  a 
juvenile  spat,  possibly  discipline,  one  of  the  boys  was  called  on  for 
his  table  verse  in  the  round,  und  muttered,  "  I'm  a  brother  to  drag 
ons  and  a  companion  to  owls — in  the  daytime."  On  a  special 
occasion,  a  stranger  student  was  called  on  to  pray,  and  he  offered 
so  long  and  loud  a  supplication  that  there  was  less  devotion  than 
merriment  on  the  seats.  Mr.  Green  followed  him  in  the  most  sub 
dued  tone  with  his  elegant  and  sarcastic  reproof,  "We  thank  th.ee, 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  35 

O  Lord,  that  Thou  art  not  deaf !  "  My  mature  judgment  is,  that 
Mr.  Green  came  out  "separate"  too  early.  Inside  there  was  room 
for  his  genius,  courage  and  eloquence.  Church  and  nation  were 
asleep. 

It  should  be  mentioned  that  a  few  were  specially  favored  by 
the  kind  attentions  of  the  President  and  family.  In  such  a  spirit 
ual  atmosphere,  and  with  its  elevated  conversation,  the  social  pow 
ers  were  developed  for  a  larger  usefulness  in  later  days.  Sabbath 
after  Sabbath  was  spent  among  the  outlying  churches  and  Sabbath- 
schools  in  such  efforts  as  not  only  became  a  valued  help  to  them, 
but  also  developed  in  us  that  readiness  of  utterance  and  individu 
ality  of  thought  that  were  so  absolutely  essential  in  preparation  for 
usefulness.  The  equipment  of  the  Institute  with  a  printing  "press, 
upon  which  the  Friend  of  Man  was  published,  gave  a  knowledge  of 
affairs  such  as  are  associated  with  the  press  everywhere. 

The  favorite  recreation  of  the  students  was  in  impromptu 
debates.  Scores  of  questions  would  be  put  into  a  hat,  and  drawn 
out  for  the  speaker  after  he  had  been  called  to  the  platform  and 
introduced  by  the  presiding  officer  of  the  society.  It  was  a  men- 
taj  pastime  that  tested  the  boys,  and  gave  a  strength  that  comes 
with  such  wrestling  and  mental  encounter.  The  stimulus  that  it 
gave  to  general  reading  and  ready  wit  was  indispensable,  though 
the  contestants  knew  it  not. 

In  all  departments  of  the  Institute  the  criticisms  were  of  the 
freest,  and  every  man  was  compelled  to  become  bold  for  the  truth; 
that  was  taught  as  ranking  above  all  else.  Thus,  in  all  directions, 
bodily,  mental  and  spiritual,  by  manual  labor,  the  dialectics  of  the 
lyceum,  and  the  cultivation  of  a  profoundly  reverent  regard  for  the 
truth,  the  students  were  being  symmetrically  equipped  for  the 
service  of  humanity,  that  has  never  had  a  reformer  too  many, 
nor  a  well-wisher  who  could  be  spared. 

In  later  years,  a  former  editor  of  the  Friend  of  Man  has  thus 
voiced  his  recollections  of  the  boy,  Grinnell;  recollections  called 
out  by  an  article  upon  the  Iowa  pioneer's  relation  to  sheep-raising 
in  the  State  of  Iowa.  It  was  Wesley  Bailey,  editor,  and  father  of 
Senator  Bailey,  of  Decorah,  Iowa,  who  wrote  the  following 
editorial  twenty-five  years  ago,  after  inviting  the  youth  to  a 
partnership : 

"  "We  are  not  only  interested  in  sheep-raising,  but  we  also  feel  an  interest  in 
the  above-named  Grinnell.  We  knew  him  when  a  student  in  Oneida  Institute, 


36  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETT   YEARS. 

New  York  —  a  bright,  active  youngster,  a  close  scholar,  and  a  genial  and  intelli 
gent  companion,  always  busy,  and  ready  to  turn  his  hand  to  anything  that  turned 
up,  either  when  school  kept,  or  the  vacation  occurred,  but  always  seeking  to  be 
useful.  His  after  life  turns  out  to  be  just  what  such  a  youth  gave  promise  of.  He 
is  at  home  in  the  pulpit,  the  Senate  chamber,  or  the  large  political  convention,  as 
well  as  active  in  the  real  agricultural  improvements  which  are  most  sure  to  enrich 
and  develop  the  State  of  his  adoption.  We  have  not  seen  him  since  he  was  a 
young  man,  but  the  youth  is  still  fresh  in  our  recollection,  and  having  taken  a 
*  liking '  to  the  boy,  we  note  with  feelings  of  pleasure  his  career  of  honor  and  use 
fulness  through  life." 


CHAPTEK  III. 

False  Theories  —  Club  Life — Westward,  ho!  —  Wisconsin  Prairies — 
Codding,  the  Abolition  Orator — The  Home  of  the  Badger — 
A  Volume — A  Return  East — A  Student  in  Auburn  Theological 
Seminary  —  First  Call  to  Preach — Union  Village,  New  York  — 
My  Mother's  Death. 

FIFTY  years  ago  seems  to  have  been  the  period  not  alone  of  agi 
tation,  but  of  wild  theories  as  to  abstinence  and  privation,  to 
insure  a  clear  brain  and  the  good  of  an  ambitious  student.  I  fell 
into  the  procession  so  far  as  to  enter  upon  an  almost  insane 
extreme  in  abstinence  and  physical  infliction  in  Oneida  Institute, 
to  attain  the  greatest  good  in  the  briefest  period.  This  was  the 
personal  diary  resolve :  "  To  escape  dullness  and  promote  mental 
activity  with  a  moral  purpose,  I  abjure  high  living,  the  use  of  cof 
fee  and  tea,  vacate  the  feather  bed,  and  take  up  a  club  regimen 
where  butter  and  meat  are  unused,  and  the  hard  bed,  made  by  a 
blanket  on  a  board,  shall  be  my  couch.  My  place  I  will  take  as 
cook,  steward,  etc.,  in  rotation,  and,  to  save  time,  will  in  my  turn 
read  while  others  at  the  club  eat,  that  we  may  become  more  profi 
cient  in  history,  and  find  themes  for  discussion  outside  of  dissipat 
ing  gossip."  This  is  the  sequel :  The  cost  of  living  was  reduced  to 
a  dollar  a  week ;  but  the  experiment  of  German  scholars,  pacing  up 
and  down  in  their  halls,  without  fire,  and  the  theories  of  bran 
bread  philosophers,  are  not  held  to  be  cardinal  virtues  in  a  scholar. 
After  such  a  regime  as  led  to  unpadding  the  bones,  making  more 
than  a  few  hours'  continuous  sleep  a  condition  of  pain,  bringing 
feeble  nerves  and  a  weak  digestion,  there  was  a  demand  for  out 
door  life  and  the  practices  of  wiser  men  were  adopted  after  severe 
delusive  trial. 

At  this  crisis,  I  wrote  I  could  not  indulge  in  a  season  at  Sara 
toga,  and  was  vain  enough  to  think  that  I  could  speak  to  edifica 
tion,  and  that  with  a  dash  of  an  "  unfledged  reformer  "  in  a  heroic 
role,  I  might  rattle  the  bones,  seemingly  very  dry,  in  the  valleys  of 


38  BEMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEAKS. 

conservatism.  At  this  time,  I  made  public  profession  of  religion, 
which  was  a  surprise  amidst  spiritual  iceberg  surroundings  of  a 
circle  of  sceptics,  where  I  took  up  an  affirmative  defense  of  the 
orthodox  system.  I  look  back  with  pleasure  on  this  yielding  to 
conviction  of  duty,  stimulating  to  a  higher  life,  and  preparation 
for  public  service.  I  soon  found  myself  deprecating  the  yellow 
trash  literature,  in  the  hands  of  so  many  students,  and  advocating 
the  claims  of  good  books,  and  passing  out  the  publications  of  the 
American  Tract  Society  for  sale  or  gift,  under  a  system  of  colport- 
age.  Through  my  friend,  J.  M.  Clark,  I  was  introduced  to  the 
head  office  in  New  York,  from  which  I  received  tempting  offers  to 
remain  in  New  York,  declining  which,  I  was  allowed  to  be  an 
assistant  to  my  friend,  Clark,  then  at  the  head  of  colportage  in 
Wisconsin.  With  him  I  found  what  I  coveted  —  independent 
humble  service  in  out-door  life  on  what  was  then  the  frontier. 

WESTWARD,    HO! 

This  was  in  the  summer  and  fall  of  1844,  and  my  first  visit  to 
Wisconsin,  then  a  territory.  Chicago  was  not  then  reached  from 
the  East  by  a  railroad,  and  the  staunch  steamer  "  Madison,"  which 
was  our  craft  from  Buffalo,  encountered  a  rough  passage  described 
and  known  ad  nauseam.  Nothing  seemed  to  gain  a  hearing  save 
politics,  Polk  and  Clay  being  the  presidential  candidates.  Boat 
discussion  prompted  the  wildest  bets,  cool  men  putting  up  all  their 
money  on  the  result.  In  one  instance,  a  lady  in  tears  called  me 
aside,  saying  that  her  husband  had  asked  for  their  all,  one  thou 
sand  dollars  in  gold,  which  he  staked  on  Folk's  election.  I  had 
spoken  in  a  social  religious  meeting  in  the  cabin,  and  was  urged  to 
break  up  the  bet.  This  was  my  desire,  so  I  said,  "  Wait  until  we 
reach  Cleveland,"  which  we  did,  and,  going  ashore,  I  found  that 
Polk  was  the  victor,  and  returned  to  the  boat  with  news  which 
saved  the  family  from  penury,  for  the  Clay  men  were  ardent  and 
confident. 

We  landed  at  Milwaukee,  not  the  beautiful  city  of  to-day  with 
more  than  two  hundred  thousand  people  —  then  of  seven  thousand. 
The  most  striking  facts  were  fifty  lawyers  ;  also,  bands  of  redmen, 
painted,  and  low-necked  ponies  loaded  with  pappooses,  peltry  and 
baskets.  I  became  a  correspondent  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  and 
sent  such  florid  descriptions  of  the  great  country  to  be,  that  what  I 


REMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY   YEARS.  39 

wrote  in  letters  and  of  facts,  the  State  printed  into  a  little  work, 
"  The  Home  of  the  Badgers,"  to  induce  emigration  to  the  State. 
Certainly  the  people  came,  and  have  made  a  grand  State  of  nearly 
two  millons  of  people.  My  destination  was  Prairieville,  distant 
from  the  lake,  at  the  home  of  Jonas  M.  Clark,  to  be  his  lieutenant 
with  his  books  as  my  health  would  admit.  Arriving  at  night  in 
the  little  town,  in  my  anxiety  to  see  a  real  prairie,  I  took  a  long 
stroll  after  daylight  to  see  a  virgin  realty  only  as  yet  read  of, 
detailed  my  adventure  at  a  late  and  delayed  breakfast,  and  earned 
a  laugh  for  a  model  tenderfoot.  There  were  only  fenced  farms 
near,  but  take  these  away  and  houses,  and  you  have  our  "  unshorn 
gardens,"  a  definition  which  was  a  delight  to  my  romantic  fancy. 
Afterward  I  saw  them  really  flat,  in  other  places  the  billows  of 
the  sea ;  even  a  marsh  prairie  fire,  a  sight  worth  a  thousand  mile 
trip.  I  was  lost  in  sight  of  the  now  beautiful  college  town  of 
Waupun,  having  the  light  of  distant  prairie  fire  and  the  guide  of 
an  Indian  hunter,  to  the  site  of  a  saw-mill  and  a  farmer's  hospita 
ble  roof.  An  open  winter  was  one  of  almost  fathomless  mud,  and 
the  malaria  was  conducive  to  ague,  only  kept  away  by  medicine. 
I  have  never  yet  seen  a  person  in  a  real  ague  shake. 

It  was  a  time  of  great  religious  activity  and  excited  discus 
sions  on  temperance  and  slavery.  Independents  and  users  of  a 
free  lance  were  in  demand  by  the  masses,  while  bright  minds, 
able  speakers  and  abundance  of  funds,  contributed  to  a  political 
evolution. 

Hon.  Edward  D.  Holton,  of  Milwaukee,  still  an  eminent,  good 
citizen  of  that  city,  was  then  a  young  orator.  Hon.  Charles 
Durkee  became  a  radical  Territorial  delegate  in  Congress  and 
United  States  Senator,  while  Ichabod  Codding  made  the  circuit  of 
the  counties  as  one  of  the  most  effective  orators  of  the  country.  I 
drop  a  tear  to  his  memory,  and  express  my  admiration  for  his  tal 
ents,  the  companion  and  peer  of  Lovejoy.  It  was  of  him  that  Ste 
phen  A.  Douglas  said,  "There  would  be  110  amusement  in  debating 
with  him  on  the  prairies  of  Illinois."  In  a  true  emotional  mood, 
he  made  many  weep ;  in  a  story  there  was  great  merriment,  and  in 
denunciation  of  wrong  there  were  the  deep  tones  of  indignation. 
Missouri  slave  owners,  then  in  Wisconsin,  secretly  held  their  serv 
ants,  and  fleeing  fugitives  were  common.  This  is  a  sample  of  the 
orator,  Codding : 

"Would  you  secrete  or  turn  back  the  escaped  ?"  was  the  burn- 


40  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS. 

ing  question.  The  Bible  and  human  instincts  were  the  basis  of 
appeal,  and  the  comparison  was  the  supposition  of  your  child  cap 
tured  by  the  Indians.  The  infant  is  kidnapped,  and  after  years  of 
anguish  is  given  up  as  lost.  Then  comes  a  secret  history  as  to  the 
lost  child.  "Now  the  captive  is  in  a  wigwam,  unable  to  flee. 
The  father  watches  for  the  absence  of  the  braves,  and  in  the  dead 
of  night  grasps  his  long-lost  boy  from  the  savages.  He  mounts 
the  swiftest  pony !  What !  Steal  a  horse  ?  No !  Take  one,  as 
the  drowning  cling  to  a  floating  plank  !  In  his  flight  God  shields 
him  from  bullets,  covers  his  head,  and  home  is  reached.  The 
mother  weeps,  and  kisses  her  boy ;  the  neighborhood  is  roused  with 
joy  over  the  rescue.  Hark !  In  the  dull  prayer-meeting  there  is 
praise  —  hallelujah;  except  when  the  good  deacon  hints  about  tak 
ing  property,  and  snatching  the  boy  from  the  family ;  don't  say 
what  he  might  do;  but  'the  Constitution  calls  on  us  to  send  back 
niggers.'  The  old  mother  says  they  were  stolen  and  the  white 
thief  is  no  better  than  an  Indian  kidnapper.  <Ah,  Deacon,  would 
you  send  them  back  ? ' "  shouts  Codding.  There  is  silence.  "  I 
poll  the  house.  All  who  would  send  back  the  white  boy,  rise." 
None  !  "  Now,  what  better  before  God  is  a  white  boy  than  a  black 
one  ? "  Silence  again !  "  All  who  would  send  back  a  panting, 
fugitive  black  man,  rise."  None  !  "  I  have  won  my  case.  Slave- 
holding  is  man-stealing,  and  tested  by  the  heart,  there  is  only  one 
throb  in  all  ages."  This  is  but  the  outline  of  a  speech  given  with 
the  finest .  imagery  and  deepest  pathos.  "Politic  lips  belie  the 
heart.  Throw  away  your  party  shackles !  Send  Durkee  to  Con 
gress —  an  Abolitionist,  Holton,  to  Congress  —  sponsors  at  the  bap 
tismal  font  when  Wisconsin  comes  into  the  Union."  Durkee  was 
elected. 

During  my  visit  to  the  Territory  I  met  the  Eev.  John  Lewis, 
of  New  Diggings,  whose  wife  was  the  daughter  of  Harlan  Page, 
both  of  whom  were  from  New  York  City,  and  most  devoted  in 
their  work.  Their  experiences  were  as  thrilling  in  story  as  their 
labors  were  salutary  in  restraint,  and  elevating  in  a  society  where 
few  of  the  delights  of  home  were  possible.  In  my  review  of  life 
I  count  no  labor  so  much  appreciated,  or  affording  me  so  much  sat 
isfaction  as  my  service  with  the  now  lamented  Lewis,  and  for  a 
people  exposed  to  the  temptations  of  camps  and  strolling  outcasts. 
Eemembrance  of  home  and  the  finer  instincts  asked  for  counsel  to 
the  dying,  and  a  funeral  service.  On  one  occasion,  while  Rev.  Mr. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS.  41 

Lewis  was  sick,  there  came  a  call  to  attend  the  funeral  of  a  young 
lawyer  at  Lancaster,  the  county  seat.  It  was  on  Sunday  morning, 
and  a  second  messenger  left  the  request,  but  too  late  for  the  word 
that  the  minister  was  sick.  Thereupon  I  was  asked  to  take  his 
place.  I  was  not  a  minister,  either  in  name  or  in  fact,  but  to  my 
remonstrance  was  the  answer  that  they  knew  neither  of  us,  and 
"go  right  on."  I  did;  and  only  after  the  service  did  I  inform 
them  that  I  was  not  Mr.  Lewis,  he  being  sick.  Then  came  one  of 
the  trials  of  my  life  in  making  a  decision.  There  was  no  resident 
minister  in  the  young,  ambitious  town,  and  the  young  men  hur 
riedly  got  up  a  liberal  subscription  to  induce  me  to  stay  and 
occupy  the  Court  House  on  Sundays.  It  did  not  avail  that  I  was 
no  minister,  and  on  restored  health  was  to  return  East  and  study 
theology.  They  wanted  only  one  sermon,  and  pleaded  for  a  year 
before  return.  My  answer  was,  "Independents  were  often  irreg 
ular,  but  this  is  a  good  reason  for  preparation.  A  miner  would  not 
use  a  dull  pick ;  and  the  blade  to  cut  grass  is  a  good  mower  sharp 
ened  in  the  morning  hour."  That  was  my  case.  Why  I  did  not 
yield  to  their  solicitation,  with  a  light  purse,  and  where  there  was 
a  promise  of  good,  I  do  not  know,  unless  under  the  control  of  that 
divinity  that  shapes  our  ends. 

That  occasion  is  associated  with  this  excerpt  from  a  letter  in 
my  volume,  "  Home  of  the  Badgers  " : 

"  Passing  to  Lancaster  I  found  abundance  of  blackberries,  crab-apples,  goose 
berries,  wild  plums  and  other  indigenous  fruit.  I  enumerated  the  game  I  saw, 
and  what  I  heard.  Two  deer  were  bounding  in  the  distance.  I  saw  the  gray 
squirrel ;  rabbits  darting  into  the  bushes ;  and  heard  the  prairie  hen  calling 
together  her  brood,  and  the  music  of  the  birds  that  sang  in  the  oaks.  The  thrush 
and  the  sweetest  prairie  singers  gave  voluntaries,  and  I  thought  of  the  poet's  true 
answer  to  the  question,  '  What  does  the  bird  say  ? ' 

"  '  But  the  lark  is  so  brimful  of  gladness  and  love, 
The  green  fields  below  him,  the  blue  sky  above, 
That  he  sings,  and  he  sings,  and  forever  sings  he, 
I  love  my  love  and  my  love  loves  me.' 

"  From  observation,  Grant  county  presents  inducements  equal  to,  if  not  greater 
than  any  other  county  in  the  territory.  Its  commercial  facilities,  the  high  cash 
market  in  the  mines,  are  not  to  be  overlooked.  In  this  village  there  is  no  groggery, 
and  a  large  portion  of  the  citizens  are  from  New  England  and  New  York.  A 
paper  is  published  here  called  the  Grant  County  Herald.  The  Fourth  of  July  is 
over  and  there  are  but  few  villages  in  this  region  that  have  not  run  out  their  flags 
and  drank  their  toasts.  The  soul  of  repose  is  in  activity — on  that  day  I  rode 
twenty  miles  in  a  buggy,  attempted  a  public  speech ;  rode  fifteen  miles  by  steam 
on  the  Mississippi  —  gazed  at '  fire-works '  in  Dubuque  until  eleven  o'clock  at  night, 


42  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

and  then  without  grumbling  slept  on  the  floor,  as  five  hundred  others  did  who 
slept  there  that  night. 

"The  temptations  to  business  and  land  purchases  were  not  less  than  those  to 
professional  life.  Beaver  Dam  then  was  only  an  incipient  city  with  saw-mill  and 
log  houses.  I  came  near  buying  a  half  interest  in  it  of  Mr.  Ordway,  and  was  only 
deterred  by  the  fear  of  damages  to  lands  by  a  dam  across  the  outlet  of  Fox  lake, 
which  furnishes  a  fine  water  power,  the  nucleus  of  a  city  of  seven  or  ten  thousand 
people.  Rich  as  that  purchase  might  have  made  me,  in  looking  backward  I  never 
have  since  had  a  regretful  thought  of  the  lost  opportunity,  and  think  less  of  the 
sentiment  than  of  the  rhythm  — 

'"Of  all  sad  words  of  tongue  or  pen, 

The  saddest  are  these  —  it  might  have  been.' 

"My  return  Eastward  was  by  the  way  of  Chicago,  slighting  those  bargains 
offered  in  lots,  the  possession  of  which  has  brought  colossal  wealth.  The  late 
'  Long  John '  Wentworth  at  my  side  said,  '  bid,  bid.'  I  did  bid,  but  too  low." 

In  a  letter  to  a  classmate  dated  from  Kacine,  in  November, 
1844,  there  is  a  glimpse  of  the  discomforts  of  the  trip : 

"  After  three  weeks  I  tell  you  more  of  "Wisconsin.  They  have  had  an  October 
snow-storm,  which  was  unprecedented.  I  was  chilled  almost  to  numbness,  by 
twenty-four  miles  ride  in  it ;  but  it  must  be  forgotten,  as  we  are  now  visited  with 
the  more  than  ordinary  delights  of  autumn.  It  has  been  my  fortune  in  riding  two 
hundred  miles  to  be  sloughed  but  once.  It  was  on  a  cross-road  after  a  rain.  My 
buggy  was  in  to  the  axle  —  horse  flouncing  on  his  side.  It  was  a  fit  time  to  con 
sider  one's  'condition  and  prospects.'  By  neighborly  aid  I  was  extricated,  and 
shall  look  to  my  going  in  future.  I  have  found  traveling  accommodations  gener 
ally  good.  The  exceptions  would  be,  when  the  light  of  the  candle  was  put  out  by 
the  wind  coming  through  a  hole  in  the  logs,  which  was  large  enough  for  a  middle- 
sized  fox-hound  to  crawl  through  to  be  my  company.  At  this  place,  after  enjoying 
refreshing  sleep,  I  was  greeted  over  my  head  with  bright  starlight.  I  looked  up 
and  had  a  full  view  of  some  acquaintances  in  the  constellations,  through  a  hole  in 
the  roof  full  three  inches  by  five.  The  circumstance  was  so  amusing  that  I  gazed 
until  twilight.  This  is  a  new  country  incident,  but  not  an  uncommon  one  here." 

Here  is  a  description  given  of  a  prairie  in  Dodge  county,  in  the 
winter  time : 

"The  prairie  is  full  eighteen  miles  long,  including  angles — from  two  to  five 
miles  wide,  and  on  either  side  are  groves  of  timber.  The  farms  are  made  on  the 
edge  and  the  road,  which  is  in  the  middle  of  the  prairie,  is  smooth  and  hard  as  a 
pavement  at  this  season  of  the  year.  It  is  five  miles  to  a  house  and  as  I  pass  I 
ask,  What  solitude  is  like  this,  and  who  can  choose  words  to  describe  a  prairie  in 
the  winter?  The  fluttering  insect  of  summer  had  ceased  its  music  and  the  unre- 
sisted  winds  of  the  prairie  had  driven  all  that  once  lived  there,  into  the  groves ; 
the  trees  were  almost  lost  in  the  great  distance ;  and  in  this  loneliness,  one's  strength, 
wit  or  wisdom  were  useless.  The  ground  was  undulating  where  I  rode  and  wave 
after  wave  rose  before  me  in  the  distance,  and,  above,  the  slow-moving  cloud  threw 
over  me  the  soft  mantle  of  its  shadow.  The  prairie  fire  had  just  gone  out  and  not 
a  dry  leaf,  stalk  or  shrub  was  seen.  Even  the  stones  were  smoked  to  the  color  of 


EEMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  43 

the  sod,  and  over  the  extended  hue  of  darkness  there  was  but  the  gray  winding  path, 
which  was  as  a  chain  and  guide  to  cherished  expectation.  I  crossed  during  the 
day  the  Black  Hawk  trail ;  it  awakened  peculiar  sensations,  to  come  upon  the  foot 
steps  of  so  noisy  a  predecessor.  I  could  hardly  keep  my  eye  from  it,  yet  would  not 
be  considered  even  a  chance-won  worshiper  of  that  little  line  which  could  be  just 
seen  in  the  varying  surface  of  the  prairie." 

From  such  a  scene,  we  catch  in  the  succeeding  paragraph  the 
story  of  a  prairie  on  fire.  I  had  taken  a  by-road  in  order  to 
shorten  the  distance  from  that  upon  the  highway : 

"To  save  a  few  miles  I  lost  many  hours.  The  sun  hid  itself,  and  notwith 
standing  four  or  five  miles  to  the  right  or  left  would  have  brought  me  to  the  road  — 
still  I  galloped  in  a  circle  over  brooks,  on  the  ice  and  through  high  marsh  rushes 
and  thickets,  till  my  nag  was  weary.  After  having  warmed  myself  by  burning  a 
log  and  heaped  together  several  pair  of  deer's  horn,  left  by  the  spring  where  the 
Indians  had  cooked  and  camped,  I  let  my  horse  take  his  own  course.  In  less  than 
half  an  hour  I  was  brought  to  a  road  like  a  by-path ;  here  I  saw  the  sun  setting  and 
learned  my  direction.  On  my  left  was  a  marsh  extending  a  mile,  covered  with  a 
crop  of  grass  and  rushes  from  four  to  six  feet  high.  I  was  in  a  grove,  and  hearing 
the  crack  of  a  rifle  I  looked  again  and  could  just  distinguish  a  few  Indians  across 
the  marsh.  The  dry  limbs  were  falling  about  me,  as  the  wind  blew  with  great  vio 
lence  from  the  west.  The  autumn  fire  had  gone  over  the  ground  where  I  was  rid 
ing,  but  had  not  crossed  the  marsh,  which  was  now  frozen  over,  leaving  the  tall 
grass  to  wave  above.  Little  did  I  think  that  amid  the  anxieties  of  a  man  lost  in 
the  woods,  I  was  to  be  awakened  to  a  sight  not  to  be  described  by  the  intellectual 
dreamer  and  only  equaled  by  the  mad  flame  that  dances  on  the  roofs  of  the  burning 
city.  A  thick  cloud  of  smoke  first  reached  me  in  the  strong  breeze.  As  it  passed 
over,  my  horse  wheeled,  threw  up  his  ears  and  faced  the  wind.  A  fire  had  been 
set  and  was  fast  feeding  itself  above  the  icy  bottom.  At  first  it  moved  slowly  and 
the  flame  rose  but  a  few  feet,  but  soon  it  was  fairly  rooted  and  heat  was  generated 
which  was  to  be  the  companion  of  the  wind.  A  number  of  fires  are  set,  and  as 
they  widen  and  dart  forward,  what  a  retinue  there  is  of  fabled  nymphs  and  tritons 
in  the  many-colored  blaze ;  now  the  smoke  and  blaze  are  uniting — now  they  sepa 
rate  ;  the  curling  flame  rises  higher,  flaps  like  the  light  canvas  and  bends  with  the 
breeze  and  another  fire  is  devouring.  Each  breath  of  flame  outleaps  the  last.  The 
crackling  of  the  knotted  reed  at  first  faintly  heard,  is  now  like  the  near  and  con 
fused  snap  of  ten  thousand  locusts.  The  air  is  heated,  and  one  sheet  of  flame 
dashes  in  quick  succession  over  another — it  is  like  a  race  of  steeds.  The  one  with 
the  fairest  wind  sweeps  before  the  rest  and  robs  them  of  their  fuel.  It  was  a  glare 
of  beauty  and  splendor  —  a  sure  messenger  of  death  to  all  that  made  race  with  that 
wind-fed  fire.  One  could  only  lose  himself  in  this  view  so  far  above  the  most  brill 
iant  imagery.  I  had  before  seen  a  burning  prairie,  but  it  was  only  a  fitful  flashing, 
compared  to  the  strides  of  those  devouring  demons,  that  in  a  moment  turned  that 
yellow  waving  plain  into  a  low  pall,  that  rests  011  nature  in  darkness. 

"  I  turned  into  the  path  and  saw  an  Indian,  with  his  rifle,  who  had  been  watch 
ing  for  game  that  might  be  driven  out  by  the  fire.  I  made  no  words  with  him, 
knowing  that  he  could  not  be  less  than  out  of  tobacco,  and  would  have  as  little 
morbid  sensibility  in  coaxing  a  few  shillings  from  my  pocket  as  we  have  in  making 
good  farms  of  their  hunting  grounds.  Passing  on  I  soon  reached  a  stopping  place 
for  the  night,  and  women  and  children  very  innocently  laughed  at  my  getting  lost 
in  Dodge  county." 


44  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

EASTWARD. 

Upon  returning  from  Wisconsin  with  restored  health  and  spir 
its,  there  was  no  longer  any  wavering  as  to  a  choice  of  profession. 
I  entered  the  Theological  Seminary  of  Auburn,  New  York,  largely 
under  the  influence  of  the  early  friend  of  my  father  and  mother, 
their  honored  pastor,  Doctor  Hopkins.  The  earlier  devotion  of 
the  parents  to  the  pastor  was  now  bearing  its  unlooked-for  fruit. 
Of  the  Theological  Seminary  he  was  a  trustee.  He  was  also  min 
ister  to  the  first  Presbyterian  Church.  He  had  no  children  living, 
and  I  was  made  a  welcome  guest  at  his  house  until  failing  health 
caused  his  resignation  from  the  pulpit,  and  I  was  then  made  'wel 
come  in  the  house  of  his  relative,  Mr.  Job  Ailing,  one  of  the  kind 
est  of  gentlemen. 

Dr.  Hopkins  was  an  entertaining  story-teller,  also  a  theological 
writer  and  author.  His  reminiscences  were  striking,  but  his  psy 
chology  and  severe  logic  I  remember  to  have  listened  to  only  by 
courtesy.  On  my  later  Vermont  visits  I  found  the  old  people  who 
confirmed  the  lively  stories  written  out  from  recollection.  More 
than  once  the  old  incidents  were  repeated  in  which  the  Doctor  was 
compelled  to  acknowledge  his  part.  Two  of  these,  by  no  means 
legendary,  are  here  given  out  of  their  chronological  order  because 
they  refer  to  associations  gathered  about  the  man.  They  are 
given  in  vivid  recollection. 

Shall  I  recite  the  wolf  hunt  story  ? 

"In  the  early  days  depredations  on  the  flocks  aroused  the 
neighborhood  for  a  hunt,  if  the  invaders  did  not  early  escape  to 
their  lairs.  These  occasions  were  usually  in  the  line  of  special 
providence  which  often  makes  doctors  busy  on  Sunday  —  the  day 
also  of  great  battles.  At  this  time  the  men  of  the  congregation 
were  missing,  and  the  excitement  of  the  ring,  near  by,  withdrew  a 
majority  of  the  women,  and  what  was  there  for  the  minister  but  to 
follow ;  and,  as  I  have  some  repute  as  a  good  shot,  a  youngster  in 
line  passed  his  gun  to  me,  and  as  he  told  it,  '  the  wolf  coming  in 
sight,  the  parson  shut  his  eyes,  saying,  Heaven  direct  the  shot! 
then  aimed,  but  he  didn't,  firing,  touch  a  hair.'  One  questioning 
the  propriety  of  this  clerical  episode,  was  answered,  'My  firing 
was  as  thoughtless  as  the  shot  was  harmless,  and  I  was  disposed  to 
fall  back  on  the  New  Haven  boy,  who,  a  few  years  after,  being 
questioned  about  fishing  in  the  trout  streams,  said  it  was  poor,  for 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS.  45 

he  was  down  yesterday.  "  What,  Sunday  ? "  "  Yes,  but  didn't 
stay  long,'7  and  he  cut  short  my  gentle  reproof  in  a  boyish  rebuff, 
"Guess  I  didn't  break  Sunday  much,  didn't  cotch  nothing,"  which 
is  akin  to  my  apology.  I  neither  loaded  a  gun  nor  killed  anything, 
but  it  was  my  last  appearance  in  a  wolf  hunt."3 

The  traditional  jug  story  I  learned  from  original  sources  given 
in  gleeful  recollection.  On  the  temperance  awakening,  when  the 
distillery  under  the  hill  was  a  large  and  prosperous  institution,  the 
hard  drinkers  distrusted  the  strict  abstinence  of  the  zealous 
reformers,  including  the  minister.  They  would  "all  take  it  in 
secret  behind  the  door,"  and  to  confirm  the  opinion,  one  of  the 
thirsty  doubters  met  Mr.  Hopkins,  and  espying  a  brown  jug  in  the 
parson's  wagon,  himself  on  the  way  for  a  dram,  said  he  would  say 
nothing  about  it,  for  the  best  of  people  would  have  it  in  the  house 
and  most  would  drink  on  the  sly.  The  jug  was  just  filled  with 
new  yeast  —  "  emptings  "  from  the  still-house,  and  there  was  a  sug 
gestion  in  a  sportive  mood,  that,  as  we  were  under  the  hill,  there 
would  be  no  scandal  in  taking  a  drink.  The  thirsty  customer 
fixed  his  lips  for  a  full,  hasty  dram,  his  companion  holding  up  the 
jug  at  a  proper  angle,  to  conceal  the  contents  and  insure  a  full 
delivery  on  the  drawing  of  the  plug,  which  saturated  the  person  of 
his  strangled  victim,  who  found  a  swift  emetic  rather  than  a  pleas 
ing  elixir.  It  was  one  of  those  practical  severe  jokes  which  few 
could  better  devise  and  none  more  heartily  enjoy  than  the  dignified 
doctor,  who  said  the  ludicrous  treatment  of  his  parishioner  and 
patient  was  salutary,  the  man  never  afterward  being  accused  of 
drinking  behind  the  door. 

THE    SEMINARY. 

It  was  the  judgment  of  the  Eaciilty  that  my  knowledge  of 
New  Testament  Greek  and  of  the  Hebrew  would  allow  entrance 
into  the  Junior  class.  I  graduated  after  two  years,  resisting  the 
opiate  of  caution  and  breath  of  praise  by  the  good,  but  conservative 
professors.  Their  kindness  was  not  undervalued,  yet  the  student 
did  not  adopt  the  role  of  policy,  ambitious  as  he  was  to  perform 
public  service.  With  fatherly  concern  on  their  part,  I  was  told 
that  my  ideas  were  too  radical  for  the  times ;  e.  g.,  it  was  consid 
ered  wise  not  to  discuss  the  position  of  missionaries  among  the 
Indians,  then  receiving  slaveholders  into  the  church.  A  cargo  of 


46  EEMIN1SCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

rum  might  possibly  be  overlooked,  when  sent  out  by  those  who  gave 
liberally  to  foreign  missions.  Then  the  friction  between  the  old 
and  new  schools  I  caricatured — the  old  school  holding  children 
are  sinners  when  they  were  born ;  the  new  school,  sinners  when 
old  enough  to  know  how.  The  professors,  Drs.  Henry  Mills,  Bax 
ter  Dickinson  and  Laurens  P.  Hickock,  were  all  able  men,  the 
latter  especially  became  distinguished  at  Union  College  and  a  phi 
losopher  of  celebrity ;  but  there  was  the  voice  of  Presbytery  to  be 
heeded,  and  the  old  paths  only  were  held  as  safe  and  sacred. 

Conservatism  and  all,  this  was  truly  a  serviceable  school  of  the 
prophets,  located  in  lovely  Auburn,  the  home  of  Judges  Conkling 
and  Blatchford  and  the  then  eminent  Ex-Gov.  Seward,  who  was 
heard  frequently  in  great  cases  like  the  Freeman  murder  case, 
where  his  opponent  was  "Prince"  John  Van  Buren.  attorney 
general. 

Its  alumni  were  numerous.  Distinguished  as  associates  I 
recall  the  noble  missionaries,  F.  E.  Williams  and  Charles  Little; 
Dr.  Henry  A.  Nelson,  professor,  theologian  and  writer;  Dr.  Henry 
W.  Parker,  poet,  artist,  naturalist  and  professor  in  Iowa  College, 
late  author  of  "The  Spirit  of  Beauty,"  a  volume  of  the  highest 
original  and  literary  character.  Prof.  Parker  wedded  Miss  Helen 
Fitch,  a  gifted  authoress  and  the  belle  of  Auburn,  tenderly  remem 
bered  as  long  a  sufferer  from  a  frightful  casualty.  Kevs.  H.  A. 
Strong,  Job  Pierson,  Edward  Taylor,  E.  F.  Williams  and  others, 
still  honor  the  pulpit ;  while  J.  H.  Kasson,  my  townsman  and 
friend,  and  Robinson,  the  devoted  and  ardent,  have  passed  away  in 
varying  service  not  to  be  forgotten. 

War  truly  emancipated  theological  seminaries,  as  it  did  politi 
cians.  The  vassalage  and  pulpit  circumspection  of  that  day,  I  set 
out  in  a  scrap  found  among  the  old  papers  —  of  course,  sarcasm. 

Sample  sermon  skeleton,  advisory  to  the  class  of  1847.  The 
text,  "Be  ye  therefore  wise  as  serpents  and  harmless  as  doves." 

I.  What  the  characteristics  of  the  serpent  ? 

(a)  Fertile  in  promises  to  mother  Eve. 

(b)  Has  eye  of  a  charmer  —  the  bird  falls. 

(c)  Coils  in  danger  —  circumspection. 

(d)  Crawls  when  pursued. 

II.  In  the  symbol  of  a  dove. 

(a)  Harmless  in  flight. 

(b)  Gentle  in  cooing. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  47 

(c)     Instinctively  in  storm  takes  refuge  in  a  cote. 
Remarks.     Gentlemen,  advisory  to  your  congregations,  say  on 
Fast  and  Thanksgiving  days,  we 

1.  Deprecate  the  California  gold  fever. 

2.  Denounce  fanatical  Mormon  crusaders. 

3.  Execrate  the  bloody  Mexican  war. 

4.  Commiserate  black  men — leave  slavery  to  Providence. 

5.  Study  the  symbols  of  the  successful  minister — the  serpent 
of  the  earth,  the  dove  of  the  air. 

A    CALL. 

Union  village,  thirty  miles  north  of  Albany,  was  the  place  of 
my  first  settlement.  It  was  a  village  romantic  in  nature,  of  attract 
ive  houses,  a  refined  people,  of  radical,  diverse  opinions  on  the 
great  issues  of  slavery  and  temperance.  The  Congregational 
church  had  come  out  from  the  Dutch  Reformed,  refusing  to  fel 
lowship  any  church  tolerating  a  rumseller  or  a  slaveholder — a  pro 
test  only  a  quarter  of  a  century  in  advance  of  Presbyterian  and 
Methodist  orthodoxy  and  ethics.  It  required  heroines  and  born 
cavaliers  to  stem  a  tide  of  flunky  ism,  a  cowardly  pulpit  and  social 
intolerance. 

That  church  was  equal  to  the  occasion  in  that  locality ;  erecting 
a  fine  edifice,  and  with  ample  means  and  high  social  culture,  enlist 
ing  thought,  not  less  than  awakening  admiration.  As  a  young 
minister  I  had  no  high  advanced  standard  to  urge;  it  was  rather 
an  effort  to  keep  up  with  the  procession  on  a  stern,  rugged  march, 
entered  upon  by  a  noble  people  in  calm  resolution.  Certainly  their 
high  social  standing  and  kindly  spirit,  with  the  heart  of  true 
reformers,  made  them  a  peculiar  people. 

In  politics,  new  issues  were  met  confronting  the  slave  power  on 
the  election  of  Gen.  Taylor,  who,  though  really  a  kind-hearted 
man,  was  the  hero  of  a  war  severely  denounced. 

The  liberal  party,  headed  by  John  P.  Hale,  received,  I  think, 
the  entire  suffrage  of  the  voters  in  our  Society.  In  the  eyes  of  a 
gross  sentiment  there  was  the  greatest  scandal  in  the  abolition  of 
the  corner  negro  pew,  yet  more  so  in  name  than  in  resulting  fact. 
The  families  keeping  house-servants  and  coachmen,  found  their 
employes  in  church,  without  pressure  or  command,  occupying  not  a 
corner,  but  a  side  of  the  church;  they  were  so  numerous  that  a 


48  BEMINISCENCEti   OF  FOETY   TEARS. 

colorphobist  asked  the  usher  on  entering  to  do  him  a  favor  by  giv 
ing  him  a  seat  not  "on  the  shady  side  of  the  house."  The  name 
of  Negro  church  was  a  by-word,  but  there  was  only  a  toleration  of 
a  class  in  worship  as  ready  as  that  of  the  nurse  or  the  drivers  on 
duty,  and  defended  without  an  idea  of  the  social  quality  as  degrad 
ing;  it  was  a  salutary,  kind  effort  to  uplift  a  class,  yet  wearing  the 
badges  of  the  slavery  of  their  fathers ;  in  a  word,  a  Christian  rec 
ognition  of  the  oneness  of  the  race. 

I  give  an  incident.  Rev.  Mr.  Fillmore,  of  Cambridge,  a  popu 
lar  pastor,  a  relative  of  the  then  President  Fillmore,  proposed  an 
exchange.  On  the  way,  accosted  by  a  parishioner,  he  was  asked 
as  to  his  mission.  "Going  to  exchange  with  Grinnell,  to  preach  to 
nabobs  and  niggers"  —  a  hyperbole  at  least — it  was  in  no  sense 
true.  The  audience  was  not  of  nabobs,  but  of  cultured  people, 
tolerating  a  class  to  whom  the  low  designation  of  "  nigger "  was 
never  applied.  The  families  could  afford  to  be  singular,  equally 
with  the  affluent  Quakers  in  plain  colors  far  out  of  fashion.  Still, 
in  a  "  one  idea "  they  found  no  cardinal  virtue  or  excuse  for  minor 
neglects.  The  first  ladies  sang  in  the  choir.  The  rich  man's 
daughter  played  at  the  organ  —  thus  music,  Sabbath-school,  tem 
perance  and  reform,  filled  the  church,  and  there  were  added  to  its 
numbers  on  one  day  near  half  a  hundred  by  profession. 

The  monthly  concerts  for  missions  drew  Quakers,  skeptics,  and 
the  late  witty  E.  D.  Culver,  member  of  Congress,  all  bearing  a  free 
lance.  The  warfare  against  the  saloon  was  only  less  than  against 
slavery,  seemingly  more  effective.  Reform  men,  the  wood-sawyer, 
the  Mohawk  Dutchman,  aided  in  keeping  back  license  for  a  time, 
and  liberal  citizens  erected  a  temperance  hotel,  only  to  lose  its 
peculiar  standing  after  a  few  years.  As  to  the  tipplers,  I  recall 
two  ludicrous  incidents. 

McDonald  was  a  reformed  Irishman,  but  on  the  death  of  a 
daughter  fell  into  grief,  and  I  made  a  special  effort  to  keep  him 
sober  to  attend  the  funeral.  At  the  cemetery  what  was  my  sur 
prise  when  he  stepped  out  in  front  of  the  company  to  speak,  and 
this  was  his  bull  which  afterward  stung  his  proud  spirit,  and  led 
to  a  permanent  reform :  #  Friends,  I  thank  you  for  your  presence, 
and  for  burying  my  dear  child,  and  hope  the  time  is  not  far  distant 
when  I  can  in  like  service  return  your  kindness.'7 

Another  inebriate  was  brought  to  reform  —  a  kind  of  a  pill  doc 
tor — by  a  laughable  experience.  Coming  home  late  at  night, 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  49 

hungry  and  thirsty,  he  called  to  his  wife  up-stairs,  for  milk  and  a 
bowl  of  blueberries.  Their  location  in  the  pantry  was  pointed  out, 
only  a  dim  moon  shining.  During  his  absence  she  had  made  a 
batch  of  pills,  and  had  left  them  near  the  berries.  Presently  he 
called,  in  the  midst  of  profanity,  "Are  there  none  fresher  than 
these?"  —they  had  made  him  sick.  Horrors!  horrors!  and  the 
reply,  as  she  took  in  the  situation,  was,  that  instead  of  the  berries 
he  had  taken  the  bulk  of  those  pills.  The  ridicule  which  followed 
the  maudlin  episode  ended  the  career  of  a  medical  practitioner, 
and  caused  his  reform. 

Time  has  not  dimmed  my  recollection  nor  lessened  my  admira 
tion  for  the  heroism  of  that  congregation,  as  I  recall  Dr.  Corliss, 
the  Moreys,  Holmes,  Masters,  Gibbs,  Bigelows  and  others,  for  all 
of  whom  save  one,  epitaphs  have  been  written. 

I  mention  President  Arthur,  whose  personal  opinions  he  gave 
me  at  the  White  House.  "  I  lived  in  Union  Village  at  the  found 
ing  of  that  church.  George  H.  Corliss,  the  son  of  Dr.  Corliss,  was 
my  playmate,  now  the  great  mechanic  decorated  by  the  kings  of 
Europe.  Not  long  ago  I  told  him,  sitting  in  that  chair,  that  he 
would  be  remembered  and  his  name  mentioned  long  after  some  on 
the  Presidential  roll."  Then  added,  "  Young  William  Holmes  had 
ten  chances  to  one  of  mine  for  a  rise  in  the  world.  He  had  fine 
dress  suits,  carriages  and  horses  at  command,  and  I  was  only  the 
son  of  a  poor  Baptist  minister."  Knowing  that  Holmes  lived  in 
reduced  circumstances  at  Grinnell,  my  Iowa  home,  he  invited  him 
to  visit  the  White  House.  Learning  of  the  family  he  rang  his  bell, 
asked  by  a  note  that  the  youngest  son  should  have  an  appointment 
by  the  Postmaster  General  to  the  next  railroad  mail  vacancy, 
which  was  soon  filled  by  Mr.  Frank  S.  Holmes.  In  further  evi 
dence  of  a  statesman  who  never  forgot  his  friends,  is  the  fact  that 
his  high  station  did  not  prevent,  on  the  death  of  Mr.  Holmes,  a 
telegraphic  message  of  sympathy  to  the  family. 

My  stay  with  this  people  was  a  pleasant  one,  with  a  full  house 
and  the  church  doubling  in  members.  On  most  fair  Sundays  I 
spoke  three  times  a  day  —  the  afternoon  in  the  country.  A  con 
viction  came  that  a  change  would  inure  to  the  benefit  of  both  par 
ties,  though  I  did  not  seek  invitations,  for  they  were  at  hand. 
Was  there  a  divinity  shaping  the  future,  bringing  burdens  and  the 
sad  separation  of  friends  ?  My  mother,  for  a  long  time  in  feeble 
health,  was  at  Union  Village  treated  with  the  kindest  attention. 


50  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS. 

She  died  at  the  old  home,  sundering  the  link  keeping  me  from  the 
West,  which  had  bound  me  nearer  home,  to  witness  at  the  bedside 
wasting  and  death. 

The  following  letter  is  expressive  of  a  mother's  loss : 

Mother  is  dead!  Yesterday  I  replied  to  an  inquiry,  "She  yet  lingers,"  and 
this  is  the  first  time  I  write  the  mournful  sentence  —  a  truth  I  could  not  speak. 
From  friends  I  have  often  heard  the  expression,  "  My  mother  is  not  living,"  but  I 
little  understood  that  loss  as  I  now  do,  which  stirs  the  soul  to  the  depths  of  feeling, 
and  is  the  occasion  of  extreme  pain.  We  are  called  but  once  to  suffer  it  during 
the  longest  life,  and  it  is  a  loss  for  which  no  earthly  blessing  can  give  return. 

A  suffering  mother  was  mine.  For  a  period  of  years  she  had  not  known  an 
hour  free  from  pain,  still  she  uttered  not  a  murmur.  Her  mood  was  cheerfulness, 
and  all  her  years  of  wasting  furnished  lessons  of  patience.  There  was  pain  in  the 
thought  that  the  kindness  of  friends  could  not  be  requited,  and  when  the  lips  could 
not  utter  the  words  the  heart  indited,  often  her  fast  falling  tears  were  the  only 
expressions  of  gratitude. 

A  widowed  mother.  When  a  child  twenty  years  agone,  my  father  passed  away, 
commending  us  all  to  the  God  of  the  widow  and  the  Father  of  the  fatherless.  Now 
I  recall  the  lonely  sigh,  and  her  careworn,  saddened  look  has  a  new  impression 
after  many  years,  and  her  devotion  to  us  is  explained.  She  lived  in  us  and  for  us. 
The  youngest  of  our  little  circle,  so  full  of  promise,  passed  away  ;  the  eldest,  far 
from  home  among  strangers,  was  cut  down  in  manhood  ;  yet  the  fountains  of  her 
heart  had  not  been  so  dried  up,  or  exhausted,  that  at  the  mention  of  father,  they 
did  not  flow.  Oh !  holy  as  heaven  is  the  widowed  mother's  love. 

"  The  love  of  many  prayers  and  many  tears, 
Which  changes  not  with  dim  declining  years." 

So  she  was  endeared  to  us  until  her  last  breath. 

She  lived  and  died  a  Christian  mother.  Christ  was  the  anchor  of  her  soul ; 
heaven  she  looked  forward  to  as  her  home,  and  the  voice  of  duty  was  heard  as  the 
voice  of  God.  May  those  prayers  and  counsels  meant  for  us  that  we  might  be  use 
ful,  never  be  forgotten.  May  her  expression  this  morning,  "a  blessed  Sabbath," 
and  her  last  words,  "  Christ  is  precious,"  be  linked  with  her  memory  and  magical 
words,  until  we  have  crossed  the  melancholy  flood. 


CHAPTEE  IV. 

Washington  Society — Its  Intolerance  —  The  new  Congregational 
Church — A  Liberal  Club  —  Distinguished  Reformers — Dr. 
Bailey's  National  Era — Radical  Legislators. 

PRESIDENT  ZACHARY  TAYLOK  died  in  Washington  on  the  9th 
day  of  July,  1850,  much  lamented  for  his  sterling  honesty,  though 
taken  up  as  a  candidate  on  the  score  of  availability.  I  attended 
his  funeral,  although  too  ill  to  see  little  more  than  the  formality 
of  an  official  pageantry  so  common  at  State  burials ;  and  the  old 
horse,  a  gray  charger  of  the  Mexican  war,  following  in  the  rear, 
seemed  about  all  the  cortege,  brute  or  man,  in  becoming  solemnity. 
It  was  very  offensive  to  my  taste  that  the  cavalry  and  flying  artil 
lery  returned  from  the  burial  with  the  quick  motion  of  a  retreat, 
and  that  before  sunset  the  artillery  "  played  war  "  on  the  mall  in 
front  of  the  White  House,  clad  in  mourning  for  the  death  of  the 
President. 

The  Washington  then  and  of  to-day,  how  unlike !  Impure 
water,  muddy  roads,  squalor  which  sat  in  poverty,  and  the  Avenue 
in  a  general  dilapidation,  and  as  if  the  angels  of  destruction  had 
come  to  hover  over  the  40,000  people,  ignorant,  and  massed  as 
servitors  of  officials,  at  the  National  Capital.  The  place,  however 
beautiful  in  nature,  required  the  removal  of  the  curse  of  slavery, 
and  an  infusion  of  new  blood  and  capital,  to  make  the  city  of 
to-day  attractive  to  its  200,000  residents. 

On  my  second  street  walk  I  saw  a  family  in  chains,  coming 
over  from  the  Island  slave-pens,  where  it  was  said  there  had  been 
an  auction-block  sale  of  humanity.  My  blood  boiled,  and  I  did  not 
suppress  indignant  speech,  while  the  Northern  clerks  whom  I  met 
said,  "  Talk  low,  you  will  get  us  all  into  trouble."  All  seemed  to 
be  dumb  in  the  shadow  of  the  great  outrages.  There  was  an  open 
alliance  of  politicians  and  the  Church,  to  keep  still,  little  less 
shameful  than  the  league  to  uphold  slavery  itself.  A  free  pulpit 
—  there  was  none,  and  the  only  light  which  gave  me  hope  was 


52  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

from  Dr.  Bailey's  National  Era,  and  the  social  gatherings  in  Ms 
parlors,  with  the  possibility  of  a  Church  not  chained  to  the  dead 
corpse,  too  offensive  for  concealment,  corrupting  the  very  air. 
Slavery  struck  with  paralysis  the  otherwise  manly  spirits,  by  its 
subtle  exactions  and  divisive  plots. 

A    CHURCH. 

Humanity  found  no  voice  in  the  sanctuaries,  nor  was  there  a 
free  platform  for  religious  protest  against  the  open  barter  and  pub 
lic  sale  of  men.  It  was  no  caricature  that  our  fustian  flag 


'  In  splendid  mockery  waves 
O'er  a  land  of  slaves." 


Messrs.  Bigelow,  Prentice,  Stevens  and  others  advised  me  that 
old  Trinity  Church  on  Judiciary  Square  was  to  be  sold  when  vaca 
ted  by  the  Episcopalians  for  their  new  one.  It  was  their  opinion 
that  the  Catholics  would  be  sure  of  the  edifice,  certain  that  the 
trustees  would  not  incur  odium  by  making  a  sale  to  radicals  like 
Dr.  Bailey.  It  was  not  long  before  quietly  I  had  a  contract  for 
the  purchase  of  the  edifice,  paying  a  small  sum  down  to  keep  an 
option  for  a  few  months.  Property  was  very  low,  and  the  price 
was  seven  thousand,  five  hundred  dollars,  now  worth  many  times 
that  sum.  In  the  effecting  of  a  purchase  my  plan  was  to  sell  the 
pews  in  the  North,  and  I  recall  that  Henry  C.  Bowen  (of  Bowen  & 
McNamee,  then  the  silk  merchants,  with  national  distinction  of 
having  goods  for  sale  and  not  principles),  now  proprietor  of  the 
New  York  Independent,  took  the  first  pew,  for  which  he  paid  a 
hundred  dollars.  Supported  in  the  enterprise  by  the  commenda 
tion  of  Mr.  Beecher,  Dr.  Storrs,  Dr.  Bushnell  and  others,  I  secured 
about  five  thousand  dollars,  which  was  paid  of  the  purchase  money, 
and  we  took  possession  of  the  church  in  November,  1851. 

My  sermon  on  the  occasion  was  printed  at  the  request  of  the 
members  of  the  congregation,  and,  of  the  listeners  on  that  day,  I 
recall  in  the  congregation,  Senators  Chase,  Hale,  Durkee,  and  Eep- 
resentatives  Tuck,  of  New  Hampshire,  Fowler  and  Dickinson,  of 
Massachusetts,  Koot,  Giddings  and  Townsend,  of  Ohio,  with  the 
ever  present  Dr.  Bailey,  ready  then,  as  afterward,  to  face  political 
and  social  ostracism. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  53 

The  air  at  that  day  was  filled  with  the  poisonous,  miasmatic 
breath  of  slavery,  and  the  friends  of  our  church  holding  office 
were  truly  imperiling  the  bread  of  their  families  in  the  presence 
of  hirelings  and  spies.  Caste  in  India,  or  the  hate  of  bigots  in 
Mexico  for  Protestants,  was  only  less  vengeful  than  that  of  the 
respectables  of  Washington.  Mobs  had  only  just  been  dispersed, 
thirsting  for  blood.  Fillmore,  the  President  by  succession,  was 
timid  and  chained  to  the  conservative  car,  while  the  escaping  of 
slaves  led  a  free  Church  to  be  regarded  as  a  menace,  with  all  the 
horrid  apparitions  of  a  nightmare.  The  surface  of  society  was 
truly  all  placid,  but  like  sea  gulls  whose  gyrations  presage  a 
storm,  there  were  ominous  crowds  on  the  corners  and  in  dram 
shops,  with  no  seeming  employment  but  that  of  lackeys,  too  lazy 
for  work,  too  timid  for  crime,  and  only  when  maudlin  with  drink 
and  provoked  with  rage,  were  in  their  true  role  the  tools  of  slav 
ery.  Their  language  was  gross,  and  their  oaths  loud  against  negro 
equality,  and  judging  by  their  invectives  they  would  have  drank 
vile  whisky  from  human  skulls  as  a  pastime.  I  regret  to  say  those 
denounced  as  Jesuits  were  not  so  venomous  as  Protestants ;  even 
clergymen,  whose  standing  depended  upon  "Court  favor,"  when 
they  learned  that  members  were  to  leave  their  church  for  the  Con 
gregational,  brought  nothing  of  fraternity,  rather  hovered  and 
watched  like  birds  of  evil  omen  waiting  for  their  prey.  Finesse 
more  becoming  a  ward  caucus  than  the  fraternity  of  churches 
measured  the  pulse  and  purpose.  A  few  were  not  lost  to  shame  in 
the  all  abounding  recreancy. 

From  the  sermon  in  the  church,  November  25,  1851,  the  fol 
lowing  excerpts  are  historic  as  to  the  occasion : 

The  establishment  of  a  Congregational  church  in  this  city,  as  a  new  denomin 
ation,  requires  no  apology ;  but  a  brief  explanation  may  be  proper,  for  the  sake  of 
those  who  may  be  ignorant  of  our  motives  and  designs. 

No  efforts  are  intended  in  depreciating  those  Christians  who  have  here  set  up 
their  banners.  All  truth  is  not  found  in  one  polity  or  creed;  nor  is  perfection 
claimed  for  any  Protestant  form  of  worship.  The  earnest  Christian  has  not  the 
time  to  give  in  criticism  of  educational  preferences,  natural  affinities,  and  the  non- 
essentials  which  separate,  in  name,  the  great  Protestant  family ;  and  it  is  rather 
becoming  the  zealous  to  "provoke  to  good  works,"  still  cultivating  the  unity  of 
spirit  and  the  bond  of  peace.  The  field  is  wide,  a  large  portion  of  it  being  unculti 
vated —  and  a  spirit  of  rivalry  or  words  of  railing  would  work  only  evil,  while 
thousands  about  us  must  soon  know  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  if  at  all.  The  intro 
duction  of  a  foreign  grain  of  a  new  name,  by  the  husbandman,  is  not  a  signal  for 
decrying  all  others,  indigenous  to  the  soil,  which  have  brought  "  seed  to  the  sower 
and  bread  to  the  eater  " ;  nor  does  it  become  one  branch  of  our  Father's  great  fam- 


54  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS. 

ily  to  depreciate  their  brethren  by  endeavors  to  prove  themselves  more  worthy  of 
peculiar  consideration  and  divine  favor.  This  new  standard  is  set  up  for  far  differ 
ent  purposes. 

The  best  methods  should  be  chosen  for  the  defense  of  the  truth  and  the  salvation 
of  men. 

There  is  a  choice  in  the  ways  discovered  in  reaching  our  distant  El  Dorado, 
there  being  a  route  by  the  cape,  by  the  isthmus  and  overland.  Marked  changes 
have  taken  place  in  the  modes  of  warfare  in  bloody  and  national  disputes,  by  a 
substitution  of  science,  flying  artillery  and  fleets,  for  the  cross-bow  and  trial  by 
single  combat,  and  the  pen  for  the  sword  in  diplomacy.  Ever  giving  to  God's 
methods  —  especially  the  foolishness  of  preaching,  and  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Spirit,  their  place,  we  are  not  to  forget  that  proper  means,  and  not  miracles,  are 
employed  for  the  defense  of  truth  and  the  attainment  of  certain  ends.  They  who 
are  the  teachers  of  ethics,  and  are  set  for  the  defense  of  the  Gospel,  should  have  in 
mind  that  we  live  in  a  time  of  conflicting  sentiments  —  in  an  age  of  great  freedom. 
of  opinion,  and  that  the  abuse  of  an  errorist  is  not  an  answer  to  his  argument. 
Errors  are  multiform,  and  a  change  of  tactics  in  dealing  with  infidelity,  to  meet  its 
new  phases,  becomes  necessary,  except  to  those  denials  to  which  God  has  furnished 
stereotyped  answers.  "We  are  pointed  to  men  who  would  overthrow  the  church,  be 
cause  across  their  pathway,  and  supposed  in  their  power.  To  such  we  must  dem 
onstrate  its  worth  to  them  and  their  children,  and  revive  its  ancient  spirit  when 
known  as  on  the  Rock,  sending  forth  its  light  high  in  the  heavens,  and  its  savor 
through  the  earth.  To  the  mass,  the  age  is  utilitarian  —  fruitbearing ;  and  in 
showing  to  gainsayers  what  God's  truth  is,  in  its  all-comprehensiveness  and  virtue, 
marked  simplicity,  cheerfulness  and  practical  deeds,  which  will  reach  men  in  their 
immediate  wants,  will  become  more  effective  than  simple  forms  of  worship,  or  pro 
fessions  of  orthodoxy. 

This  immediate  field  is  wide,  and  promises  richly  to  repay  cultivation.  We 
are  placed  in  the  center  of  controlling  social  and  political  influences,  meeting  on 
every  street  the  servants  of  the  people,  who  here  assemble  to  frame  the  laws,  which 
bind  together  this  republic  of  states.  This  city  has  emerged  from  obscurity,  becom 
ing  populous  and  beautiful,  the  very  name  of  which  should  stimulate  you  to  make 
it  what  the  Father  of  his  Country  would  desire,  were  he  permitted  to  communicate 
a  wish  from  that  home  to  which  he  has  gone. 

You  appear,  not  as  innovators,  either  in  church  polity,  or  with  peculiar  theol 
ogy,  on  this  soil,  held  in  common  by  all  the  states.  The  state  has  adopted  the 
republicanism  of  our  church,  the  germ  of  which  was  brought  to  the  new  world  in 
the  Mayflower  two  hundred  years  agone.  Your  theology,  with  its  cognate  princi 
ples  and  spirit,  was  never  more  welcome  to  the  scholar  and  Christian — never  more 
diffusive  than  now;  not  bounded  by  state  lines,  it  marches  with  the  "Star  of 
Empire,"  on,  and  beyond  the  "  Father  of  waters,"  where  the  Oregon  sweeps  by,  to 
find  a  local  habitation  and  a  name  in  the  land  of  gold,  where  the  Pacific  laves  the 
shore. 

Our  common  heritage  is  the  theology  of  those  divines  whose  works  are  read 
approvingly  by  the  Christians  of  many  nations.  We  have  treasures  in  the  memory 
of  Elliot  and  Brainerd,  the  eminent  apostles  to  the  Indians  —  joy  to  know  that 
Beecher  and  Hewitt,  the  early  champions  of  temperance,  are  of  us ;  and  we  take 
pleasure  in  our  Christian  relationship  to  those  in  our  country  who  first  engaged  in 
the  work  of  home  and  foreign  missions ;  who  have  given  system  and  efficiency  to 
Sabbath-schools,  and  bible  and  tract  circulation.  All  about  us  there  are  those 
who  lend  their  sympathies,  and  will  join  us  in  labors.  Be  joyous,  then,  my  breth 
ren,  to-day,  because  the  pilgrim  spirit  has  not  fled,  but  walks  in  noon's  broad  light: 
labor  and  pray  that  it  may  abide  and  burn  even  here — 


EEMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS.  55 

"  Till  the  waves  of  the  bay  where  the  Mayflower  lay, 
Shall  foam  and  freeze  no  more." 

There  is  much  of  labor  before  us ;  and  however  feeble  our  beginnings  may  be,  if 
we  go  to  God  for  counsel  and  for  strength,  we  shall  learn  that  with  Him  there  is 
no  restraint  "  to  save  by  many  or  by  few."  If  a  prophet  of  evil  and  a  foe  say,  "  If 
the  foxes  but  run  upon  these  walls,  they  will  fall  down,"  heed  it  not,  for  the  words 
to  his  church  are,  "  I  have  graven  thee  upon  my  hands  —  thy  walls  are  continually 
before  me!  "  With  a  worm  He  can  "  thrash  the  mountains  and  beat  them  small, 
and  make  the  hills  as  chaff."  Oh,  then,  go  to  Him  when  doubting  and  weary,  and 
He  will  be  a  counsellor,  and  sinew  you  with  the  strength  of  a  wrestling  Angel. 
He  will  here  raise  up  a  people  in  sympathy  with  all  that  is  good  —  a  church  which 
shall  be  with  her  children  in  the  divine  economy  of  preparation — a  quarry  for  the 
chiselling  of  marble  —  a  forest  for  the  felling  of  cedars,  to  be  borne  hence  by  the 
Master  Builder,  and  have  a  place  in  that  temple  going  up  in  the  heavens. 

This  leads  to  personality.  The  new  church  for  freedom  had 
not  been  offensive,  but  the  occupant  of  the  pulpit  was  "  shaded/' 
and  finally  charged  with  giving  a  young  mulatto  couple  a  lesson  in 
astronomy,  especially  the  location  of  the  North  star.  I  think  a 
trap  had  been  set  for  me  by  visitors  at  Gilbert's,  where  I  boarded. 
It  became  a  serious  charge.  I  could  not  prove  a  negative,  and 
with  my  enemies  perjury  was  nothing.  My  throat  gave  signs  of 
failing  me,  and  there  was  a  good  excuse  for  a  Northern  trip; 
besides,  I  had  a  pleasing  early  matrimonial  prospect  which  I  did 
not  desire  to  have  clouded  by  violence,  or  by  the  lips  of  base 
informers. 

I  left  Washington,  but  with  the  mockery  of  a  good-by  from 
so-called  gentlemen  accompanying  me  to  the  cars,  whom  I  advised 
that  they  would  "see  me  later"  —  as  they  did  from  the  gallery  at 
the  Capitol,  when  I  gave  the  vote  to  confiscate  the  property  of  one 
of  them  with  that  of  others,  for  disloyalty.  I  looked  them  boldly 
in  the  eye,  having  found  poetic  satisfaction  at  least,  waiting  on  the 
true  verdict  in  time's  just  awards. 

The  church  kept  on  its  way  until  a  council  for  the  settlement 
of  a  candidate  not  very  acceptable,  and  with  Prof.  Stowe  as  mod 
erator,  was  called  early  in  1854.  It  was  the  largest  of  the  kind 
ever  convened  in  this  country.  Dr.  Edward  Beecher  was  the  main 
questioner.  Was  there  ever  a  candidate  (whose  name  I  withhold) 
placed  under  the  eye  of  hyper  D.  D.'s  in  such  a  theological  pil 
lory  ?  He  was  bold  in  assurance,  but  not  very  orthodox.  Henry- 
Ward  Beecher  preached  a  sermon  to  a  great  crowd,  even  Senator 
Sumner  standing,  and,  by  a  special  invitation  of  Mrs.  President 
Pierce,  Mr.  Beecher  was  privately  called  to  console  on  the  death  of 


56  REMINISCENCES   OJf  FORTY   YEAES. 

her  son.     The  President,  one  of  the  most  urbane  of  gentlemen, 
received  all  the  council  with  great  cordiality. 

The  church,  later,  recovered  from  the  wounds  their  chosen  pas 
tor  had  received,  in  deprecation  and  fear  of  his  loose  theology, 
and  he  left.  Varied  measures  and  expedients,  with  results  it  does 
not  become  me  to  criticise  or  recount,  were  taken.  War  brought  a 
new  element  to  Washington,  and  the  pestilential  breath  of  slavery 
ceased  to  enfeeble  moral  purpose  and  to  invite  social  ostracism. 
Dr.  Boyington  became  chaplain  to  Congress  —  a  preacher  of  cour 
age  and  ability  —  and  there  arose  new  friends,  like  Gen.  0.  O. 
Howard,  whose  name  is  a  synonym  for  a  hero  and  Christian,  and 
Senator  Pomeroy,  of  Kansas,  domiciled  in  Washington,  who 
became  pillars  in  the  new  and  model  edifice,  where  one  of  the  larg 
est  of  our  societies  holds  its  place,  rising  in  troubled  days  of  the 
new  epoch;  from  it  vigorous  colonies  go  to  organize  in  the  new 
portions  of  the  city  and  vicinage.  The  death  of  slavery  was  truly 
the  life  of  the  Congregational  church,  free  and  aggressive,  and  the 
new  Washington. 

WASHINGTON    CHARACTERS    AND    LIFE DR.    BAILEY. 

Dr.  Gamaliel  Bailey  may  be  little  known  by  this  generation, 
for  I  am  not  aware  that  he  has  a  biography,  yet  his  career  fur 
nishes  choice  materials.  No  man  of  his  time  gave  truth  a  more 
hospitable  welcome,  nor  were  there  any  less  disturbed  by  tempo 
rary  failures  and  threats. 

Into  the  Ohio  river  his  press  was  thrown  three  times,  and  a 
bonfire  made  of  his  paper  list.  For  him  assassins  lay  in  wait,  sure 
to  gain  the  praises  of  the  "  Union  saviors  "  on  the  border.  His  first 
years  in  Washington,  publishing  the  Era,  were  perilous  to  property 
and  person,  and  as  late  as  1848,  his  office  was  for  three  days  in  a 
state  of  siege  by  a  mob  that  swore  in  the  singular  and  plural  that 
they  would  neither  eat  nor  drink  until  the  quiet-disturber  was 
slain.  The  intrepid  and  yet  mild  defender  looked  out  upon  the 
crowd  (with  their  murderous  intent)  unblanched  by  fear,  to  gain, 
when  the  peril  was  over,  the  regard  of  gentlemen  who  were  ready 
secretly  to  promote  the  continuation  of  the  National  Era.  Aban 
doned  as  a  losing  concern  by  its  projectors,  Dr.  Bailey  personally 
launched  the  craft  freighted  with  precious  principles,  never  left  to 
chance  by  an  accomplished  pilot  with  genius  to  devise  and  courage 
to  command. 


t 
REMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY   YEARS.  57 

I  recall  his  philosophy  as  but  a  story  of  yesterday.  The  cause 
wants  an  elevated  plane  where  the  sordid  will  find  no  company, 
and  "  great  truths  and  association  with  literature,  and  even 
romance ;  to  one  great  idea  alone  the  masses  are  not  won  except 
by  shame,  or  the  hope  of  early  and  easy  redress. 

From  the  wrongs  of  black  men  you  could  turn  to  columns  of 
bright  reviews  of  books,  letters  unique  from  cities,  and  charming 
views  of  Washington  society,  all  culminating  in  the  good  fortune 
of  the  manuscript  of  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  and  the  immortal 
"Uncle  Tom's  Cabin/'  later  circulated  by  Jewett,  of  Boston,  and 
others  by  the  hundred  thousand,  and  reprinted  in  many  languages. 
Sumner's  "White  slavery  in  the  Barbary  States,"  Hildreth's 
"White  slave,"  and  the  best  ideas  of  jurists  and  reformers  had 
better  than  waste-basket  fortune;  noted  and  praised  as  only  an 
advance  to  the  future  camping  ground  of  all  moral  heroes.  Judge 
William  Jay  was  never  so  well  known  as  a  worthy  son  of  the  great 
Chief  Justice,  John  Jay.  The  Quaker  poet,  Whittier,  for  two 
years  was  a  special  contributor,  and  his  verse  was  never  before  set 
in  so  elegant  a  frame  as  by  the  National  J&ra,  and  candidates  for 
literary  honors  found  it  worthy  a  generous  patron. 

Then,  in  1850,  the  philosopher  of  reform  opened  his  elegant 
parlors  to  counteract  the  social  ostracism  of  Washington,  which, 
though  coarse  in  show,  was  relentless  as  the  grave,  backed  by 
the  hundreds  of  millions  investment  in  human  chattels.  A  man 
with  an  idea,  if  not  a  boor  or  a  bore,  knew  where  he  could  find  an 
introduction  to  a  company,  after  having  seen  the  editor  of  the 
Era.  Such  worthy  peculiar  gatherings  of  people  may  have  never 
been  seen  before.  Will  they  ever  be  again,  where  such  great 
schemes  were  voiced  and  national  actors  were  seen,  the  ultra  Gods 
of  the  time,  in  promenade,  and  sipping  creams  with  common 
mortals  ? 

It  is  quite  safe  to  speak  of  those  who  have  passed  away. 
There  was  Miss  Matilda  Miner,  advertised  by  a  Congressman  as  a 
"doubtful  lady  coming  to  the  city  ostensibly  to  teach  darkies,  but 
really  to  aid  in  stealing  niggers."  What  was  the  next  sensation  ? 
The  lady  had  hired  a  school-room  next  to  the  congressman,  who 
had  in  vain  offered  hundreds  of  dollars  for  the  lease.  That  was 
finesse  and  a  fact  exciting ;  even  a  mile-stone  set  up  by  the  way, 
by  a  woman  in  strategy  —  the  peer  of  Brooks,  the  Congressman 
and  editor  from  New  York. 


58  EEMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEAES. 

Cheap  postage  had  long  been  like  the  red  flag  planted  before 
slaveholders,  who  made  reading  by  servants  a  crime,  and  Barnabas 
Bates,  of  New  York,  once  acting  postmaster  of  that  city,  con 
densed  his  figures  and  philosophy  as  another  startling  force  in  the 
parlors,  where  that  most  able  writer  and  reformer,  Kev.  Joshua 
Leavitt,  had  found  a  hearty  welcome  as  a  postage  reformer  — 
equipped  later  as  the  editor  of  the  New  York  Independent  —  a 
statesman  also.  Who  is  the  brusque,  broad,  solid  millionaire,  gray 
with  the  crown  of  sixty  years?  It  is  Asa  Whitney,  of  New 
York,  the  first  and  bold  projector  of  a  railway  to  the  Pacific  coast. 
How  firm  he  stands,  and  with  eye  lit  up  in  optimistic  glow,  fore 
casting  the  day  when  gold  shall  be  mined  at  less  then  half  its  cost. 
Disunion  was  averted,  and  the  Pacific  Eailroad  became  more  than 
a  Golden  gate  to  the  west,  a  road  for  ships  freighted  for  the  Indies. 

He  won  his  case  in  the  Bailey  parlor  forum,  but  that  year  of 
Congress  under  Southern  rule  was  dull,  and  the  rivalry  as  to  the 
eastern  terminus  was  bitter.  Col.  Benton  was  then  an  advocate  of 
the  Smoky  Hill  Kansas  route,  which  he  asserted  was  indicated  by 
the  track  of  the  Indian,  and  still  plainer  by  the  animal  instincts  of 
the  buffalo.  Though  more  than  ten  years  elapsed  and  Southern 
chairs  required  to  be  vacated  before  the  work  began,  yet  Whitney 
was  the  able,  bold  projector  of  the  great  work  of  the  century. 

THOMAS    H.    BENTON, 

the  author  of  the  "Thirty  Years  in  the  United  States  Senate,"  was 
one  of  your  broad-chested,  robust  men  of  mark,  best  recalled  and 
delineated  in  personality  when  expunging  the  Senate  Jackson- 
resolutions  of  censure.  "Solitary  and  alone  I  set  this  ball  in 
motion." 

I  heard  him  on  the  Compromise  Measures  in  1850,  especially  in 
opposition  to  the  propositions  championed  by  Senator  Foote,  of 
Mississippi.  His  speech  was  slow,  words  measured,  argument 
elevated,  and  fortified  with  historical  allusions  and  figures  in  com 
bative  array.  "  You  cannot,"  said  he,  "  by  quackery  stanch  these 
bleeding  wounds.  Here  I  throttle  the  device  as  I  hold  up  the 
measures,  and  crush  them,  as  I  mutilate  the  paper  in  my  hand 
which  prints  this  delusion."  The  ambitious  factions  displaced 
him  from  the  Senate  on  the  grounds  that  he  lived  in  Washington, 
was  not  a  hearty  slavery  propagandist  —  not  even  a  moderate  fire- 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  59 

eater;  but  St.  Louis  sent  him  to  the  House  of  Representatives  a 
term,  in  rebuke  to  the  state  where  his  counsel  was  coveted;  the 
Pacific  railway  was  brought  into  great  prominence,  and  objections 
were  met  with  the  power  and  skill  of  an  adroit  debater. 

In  1853  I  called  at  his  residence  in  St.  Louis,  a  very  plain,  low 
brick  house,  its  walls  decorated  with  maps  and  geographical  lines, 
the  promise  of  the  future  railway  to  the  Pacific,  then  an  absorbing 
public  topic.  "The  route,"  said  he,  "was  made  before  the  com 
pass,  and  the  line  is  traced  by  the  buffalo  so  plain  that  modern 
engineering  has  little  to  do,  save  in  details."  "Every  dollar," 
said  the  statesman,  "  taken  from  the  mines  has  cost  two,  and  rail 
way  transit  will  save  half  in  mining,  building  Orient  and  Occident, 
and  millions  in  taking  care  of  Indians." 

On  the  slavery  question  he  remarked,  "  Missouri  once,  I  urged, 
could  afford  to  be  taxed  to  pay  for  every  slave,  and  then  make 
money  by  the  increased  value  of  lands,"  which  he  pictured  as  rich 
in  soil,  and  richer  in  coal,  lead  and  iron.  "  I  am  a  nominal  slave 
owner,  but  can  only  say,  not  in  pride,  that  I  am  not  the  first 
man  whose  practice  and  theories  were  divergent." 

There  was  a  suggestion  and  a  hope  that  he  might  be  a  national 
candidate.  No,  the  fire-eaters  are  exacting,  and  the  North  can 
furnish  candidates  with  principles  equal  to  the  requirements  of 
conventions.  "The  Old  Koman'?  he  was  called — clouded  in  repu 
tation  by  the  duel,  but  courageous  and  defiant  when  he  opened  his 
vest  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  and  said  to  the  pugnacious,  noisy 
Foote,  "Shoot,  shoot!" 

Clay  and  Webster,  his  compeers,  whom  I  saw,  were  every  way 
unlike  the  opinionated  Missourian,  who  did  not  conceal  his  vanity 
on  my  praising  a  Senatorial  speech  against  "Hangman  Foote,"  and 
on  Compromise.  He  was  a  fearless  and  a  bitter  opponent,  but 
truly  kind  of  heart,  saying  of  his  old  enemy,  Calhoun,  wasting  on 
life's  verge,  "When  God  lays  his  hands  on  a  man  I  take  mine  off." 
He  sleeps  well. 

David  Wilmot,  of  Pennsylvania,  had  just  reached  fame  by  a 
proviso  restricting  slavery  in  the  Territories.  When  in  Congress, 
I.  was  asked  to  introduce  strangers  to  him.  He  was  a  short,  rotund 
person,  with  a  round  head,  and  bore  himself  as  a  lion  on  many 
occasions,  with  dignity,  as  the  author  of  a  most  radical  proviso, 
rescuing  a  not  over  brilliant  statesman  from  the  oblivion  of 
mediocrity. 


60  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

Preston  King,  of  New  York,  afterward  Senator,  flabby  in  face, 
obese,  and  more  than  alderman ic  in  form,  was  for  the  liberal  issue 
too  early  removed,  having,  while  a  government  officer,  drowned 
himself  in  the  bay  of  New  York. 

George  W.  Julien,  of  Indiana,  Representative,  John  P.  Hale, 
Senator  from  New  Hampshire,  with  Charles  Francis  Adams,  of 
Massachusetts,  were  a  trio  of  note,  once  candidates  for  the  Presi 
dency  and  Vice-Presidency. 

Julien  was  a  Quaker,  save  as  to  hat  and  soft  speech  —  verbal 
excoriation  of  a  dough-face  was  to  him  a  fine  art  —  but  in  the  par 
lor  he  was  a  dry  story-teller ;  a  Greeley  liberal  of  1872,  when  he 
lost  his  place  in  the  Republican  procession  by  the  hate  of  land 
sharks,  whom  he  sought  to  punish  as  a  Democratic  land  office  in 
New  Mexico.  An  old  warrior,  vexed  by  rivals  and  silver-gray  pol 
iticians  in  long  and  turbulent  career. 

Mr.  Adams  was  of  the  family  type  —  not  unlike  his  father, 
with  short,  fair,  small  features,  delicate  and  refined  in  expression, 
the  son's  features  true  to  a  royal  line,  yet  cool  in  blood,  his  con 
servatism  not  diminished  by  wealth  and  sharp  political  friction. 
Charles  Francis  and  all  the  Adamses  of  rank  have  eulogists,  and 
Dr.  Bailey,  in  whose  house  he  was  a  guest,  was  often  called  "an 
Adams,"  as  he  was  in  refinement  and  subdued  speech. 

John  P.  Hale,  Senator  from  New  Hampshire,  with  so  hearty 
and  ominous  a  smile  that  you  were  impatient  for  a  scintillation  of 
wit  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  more  feared  than  the  logic  of  debate 
by  his  foes,  was  the  character  of  chief  interest  to  the  gallery  vis 
itor.  Speaking  for  the  country,  he  imparted  courage  —  even 
audacity  of  speech  to  time-servers,  and  alone  he  stands  of  the 
Spartan  Senatorial  band  who  could  never  give  a  second  reply  on  a 
question  of  political  ethics. 

Salmon  P.  Chase,  of  Ohio,  joined  in  the  merry  circle,  happy  in 
relaxation.  In  form  he  was  a  model  man,  crowned  by  a  Webste- 
rian  brow.  As  a  speaker  he  was  slow  and  logical,  and,  with  a 
husky,  ill-toned  voice,  poorly  enforced  the  strong  Saxon  which 
gave  the  argument  of  the  case  unembellished.  An  honest,  ambi 
tious,  lucky  politician  in  his  designation ;  worthy  of  the  place  as 
Minister  of  Finance,  and  Chief  Justice,  though  soured  on  failing 
to  reach  the  Presidency,  to  which  I  know  he  actively  aspired.  If 
the  Senator  was  the  victim  of  imposition,  let  it  be  charged  to  fear 
of  injustice  to  a  friend,  and  not  to  mercenary  motives  or  political 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETT   YEARS.  61 

aspirations.  Years  after,  just  seated  in  the  chair  of  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  on  my  call,  and  expression  of  cheer  and  good  wishes, 
Mr.  Chase  replied,  "It  is  the  last  place  I  should  have  accepted  — 
one  of  details  and  denials  for  which  I  have  little  aptitude.'7  I 
named  to  him  Dr.  Bailey,  deceased,  and  his  family,  whereupon  he 
sent  a  messenger,  who  secured  for  his  son  the  first  official  favor, 
and  it  was  consonant  with  a  generous  spirit  that  was  refreshed  on 
my  praise  of  the  Era  and  its  editor. 

Other  notables  like  Horace  Mann,  Seward,  Giddings,  and  their 
class,  have  found  biographers  in  warm  and  just  praise. 

Ladies  were  welcome.  The  Misses  Carey,  risen  to  fame,  Mrs. 
Southworth,  one  of  the  most  prolific  of  novelists,  the  author  of  a 
half  hundred  volumns,  and  still  vigorous,  though  past  seventy 
years  of  age,  and  the  dark-eyed,  pensive  Grace  Greenwood,  Mrs. 
Lippincott  (who  has  never  been  so  far  out  of  sight  or  thought  as 
now  in  a  Colorado  home),  pleasantly  lured  their  sex  into  the  cir 
cle  of  the  social  plans  of  the  time. 

What  of  the  frolics  ?  In  the  old  games  of  youth  the  bow  was 
unbent,  and  a  chance  Southerner  was  left  to  wonder  how,  with  the 
only  stimulus  of  coffee,  there  could  be  such  cheer.  It  was  spon 
taneity  without  formality,  and  a  social  protest  against  reigning 
shams  at  slavery's  capital.  There  were  promenade  trips  to  music, 
ballads,  with  a  grand  finale  in  a  game  of  blind  man's  buff,  entered 
into  with  special  zest  by  the  veterans  of  propriety.  Horace  Mann 
is  blinded,  and  less  adept  at  identifying  his  captive  lady  than  in 
tracing  a  word  to  a  Saxon  root.  Then  Giddings  or  Senator  Hale. 
The  occasion  was  both  boisterous  and  ludicrous,  in  the  ruffle  of 
silks,  and  the  sallies  of  wit.  Young  life  was  recalled,  when,  by  a 
trip,  the  venerable  Giddings  and  Grace  Greenwood,  by  a  collision, 
fell  to  the  carpet,  making  a  tableau  which  nearly  forty  years  can 
not  efface. 

This  was  the  plotting,  and  here  was  the  heart  and  policy  of  the 
great  editor,  Bailey,  who  kept  in  the  line  of  England's  great  lady 
of  rank,  pleading  with  cold-blooded  lords  for  an  emancipation  vote. 

Garrison  was  just  emerging  from  a  garret,  unmerchantable  eggs 
were  iii  less  demand,  and  the  great  cause,  escaping  obloquy,  gained 
a  new  status  by  the  gifted  pen  and  parlor  assemblies  of  one  who 
fell,  alas !  too  early,  breaking  the  chains  of  the  bondmen  by  peace 
ful  means,  in  preparation  for  the  fateful  lightnings  of  war,  fol 
lowed  by  the  emancipation  pen  of  Lincoln. 


62  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

THE    FORUM    OF    DEBATE. 

Past  discussions  up  to  1850  and  1851  seemed  tame  compared 
to  those  on  the  compromises  reported  for  the  staunching  of  politi 
cal  wounds.  I  took  in  from  the  galleries  the  groups  forming  an 
epoch  in  our  history,  and  made  notes  which  I  do  not  care  to  revise, 
only  elaborate.  Webster  was  under  a  cloud  by  his  7th  of  March 
speech.  Henry  Clay  spoke  his  last  words  with  tearful  emotion,  to 
which  I  listened.  J.  C.  Calhoun,  long  the  praised  logician,  and 
oracle  of  secession,  had  a  successor  in  Mr.  Khett,  a  politician  of 
another  type,  really  a  Jacobin  inviting  a  bloody  conflict. 

Senator  Butler,  a  man  of  emotion,  great  in  stature,  powerful  in 
declamation  and  a  cultivated,  classic  orator,  was  moved  to  tears  on 
the  mention  of  the  name  of  his  dead  colleague.  He  was  nursing 
his  hate  for  the  Union  and  seemingly  happy  over  any  ill-timed 
remarks  by  a  Senator  or  the  Press,  on  which  he  could  emphasize 
his  secret  enmity  to  the  North,  culminating  in  open  disunion. 

"  Hangman  Foote,"  of  Mississippi,  had  descended  as  an  extrem 
ist  to  become  a  compromiser.  No  man  had  so  pompous  a  bearing, 
wearing  the  plumes  of  the  orator  at  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone 
of  the  Washington  monument ;  dodging  from  seat  to  seat,  fertile 
in  injective,  exasperating  speech.  He  earned  my  contempt  by  car 
rying  a  pistol  and  drawing  it  on  Senator  Benton  (known  to  be 
unarmed)  in  the  Chamber,  like  a  gaffled  fowl  in  a  cock-pit  waiting 
provocation.  He  was  entitled  to  expulsion,  but  Benton  showed 
the  hero  when,  refusing  to  give  bonds  on  the  requirement  of  Mr. 
Clay  to  keep  the  peace,  he  said,  "No!  he  would  rot  in  jail  first." 
Then  there  was  a  hack  driver,  the  picture  of  the  "  hangman  Sena 
tor,"  save  a  little  darker,  following  the  slave  status  of  the  mother, 
an  unquestioned  Foote,  they  having  one  father.  It  was  rumored, 
on  Col.  Benton's  ridicule  of  Foote's  "  abhorrence  of  negroes "  as 
being  a  recent  family  aversion,  there  was  a  threat  of  revenge,  to 
heal  wounded  honor.  It  would  have  been  gained  only  by  assassin 
ation,  for  Col.  Benton  had  fought  his  last  duel. 

JEFFERSON    DAVIS 

I  studied,  as  one  coveting  the  mantle  of  the  dead  Calhoun  —  an 
ornament  he  was  not  born  to  wear  with  a  military  West  Point  air 
rather  than  as  a  votary  of  the  classics. "  Davis  ran  away  with  the 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  63 

favorite  daughter  of  President  Zachary  Taylor,  and  the  ambition 
to  run  ahead  of  somebody  was  a  charitable  conjecture  in  regard 
to  the  Senator.  A  very  sharp  nose,  high  cheek  bones,  compressed 
lips,  haughty  mien,  arid  measured  words  in  defiance,  gave  a  picture 
of  the  man  ten  years  before  the  act  of  open  perjury,  and  at  the 
head  of  a  great  rebellion.  His  speeches  were  as  juiceless  as  his 
Presidential  messages,  and  colder  than  his  affection  for  his  com 
rades  in  the  war.  For  some  word  from  a  radical  like  Hale  or 
Chase,  there  was  a  morbid  impulse,  on  which  he  might  hang  a 
threat  or  hurl  an  invective.  He  seemed  envious  of  Senator  Soule, 
of  Louisiana,  dark  as  a  Creole,  a  really  eloquent  fire-eater.  Davis 
would  make  quick  step  out  of  the  Chamber  when  Benton,  "Old 
Bullion,"  spoke  like  a  patriot. 

Senator  J.  M.  Mason,  of  Virginia,  was  a  pompous  example  of 
F.  F.  V.,  seeming  to  pass  radicals  in  scorn  —  whom  he  was  too  dull 
to  answer.  I  had  a  chance  to  meet  him  after  John  Brown's  raid 
in  Virginia,  and  gained  a  low  opinion  of  his  honor  as  a  man,  and 
of  a  courage  that  imbibed  bourbon  to  match  his  Bourbon  politics 
as  a  slave  breeder. 

Slidell,  his  confederate  from  Louisiana  in  escape,  who  came 
near  bringing  us  into  a  collision  with  England,  was  a  solid  man, 
and  proved  his  high  order  of  legal  ability  by  gaining  a  great  law 
practice  in  Europe,  after  a  world-wide  advertisement  by  reason  of 
his  capture  on  the  British  steamer  "Trent,"  and  release  from  Fort 
Warren  on  an  interpretation  of  law  quite  humiliating  to  the  patri 
otic  masses,  yet  saving  a  rupture  with  Great  Britain. 

Around  these  kindred  spirits  seem  to  revolve  like  satellites 
great  talkers  who  were  only  of  service  on  roll-call.  The  conserva 
tive  Democratic  aspirants  for  the  Presidency  became  a  study,  not 
the  least  ambitious  of  whom  was  Senator  Houston,  of  Texas,  the 
hero  of  San  Jacinto,  with  truly  a- romantic  career  at  home,  in  the 
camp  of  the  savage,  and  as  Governor  of  Texas.  The  window  pic 
tures  of  a  tall,  long,  plain  face  were  not  caricatures.  The  leopard- 
skin  vest  was  a  reality,  sported  as  the  trophy  of  a  Nimrod,  and  his 
occupation  was  to  sit,  with  head  bent  without  dignity,  in  seeming 
reflection,  whittling  pine  sticks,  when  not  listening  to  personali 
ties,  or  discussions  in  which  he  was  to  take  a  part.  I  never  saw 
him  at  his  desk  reading  or  writing  like  his  fellows. 

Gen.  Houston  was  under  the  ban  of  Southern  opinion,  and 
passed  from  sight  as  a  Presidential  candidate.  Not  so  with  Gen. 


64  EEMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

Lewis  Cass,  and  Senator  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  They  sat  opposite, 
and  each  watched  the  other's  movements  with  more  interest  than 
rival  bidders  at  a  great  auction  sale.  Cass  was  defeated  in  1848, 
but  hope  sprang  anew  for  1852,  before  the  entry  of  Pierce,  the 
dark  horse. 

The  general  wore  a  wig  which  did  not  conceal  his  age,  was 
obese,  wheezy  and  rapid  in  speech ;  resting  in  the  halo  of  a  sol 
dier  of  the  war  of  1812,  who  broke  his  sword  across  his  knee  on 
the  surrender  of  Gen.  Hull.  A  pioneer  in  Detroit  he  had  become 
rich  in  lands,  but  was  distrusted  by  the  party  slate-makers  for  hon 
esty,  and  not  strong  with  the  "bohoys." 

Wine  at  dinner  was  then  a  common  beverage  at  the  St.  Charles 
Hotel,  where  I  saw  Gen.  Cass  send  down  for  the  undrained  bottle, 
when  his  admirers  no  doubt  would  have  been  delighted  with  a 
taste  in  compliment  rather  than  the  illusory  mild  aroma.  I 
remarked,  "  He  will  never  be  President,"  not  on  account  of  his  bev 
erage,  rather  because  he  did  not  pass  it  around.  Had  it  been 
Douglas,  stranger  and  friend  would  have  touched  their  glasses 
until  many  brands  had  been  tried,  regardless  of  costly  corkage,  and 
the  clinking  had  become  both  feeble  and  monotonous.  Both  aspir 
ants  had  opposed  the  Wilmot  proviso,  and  approved  the  main  feat 
ures  of  the  odious  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  Gen.  Cass  in  society  was 
urbane  and  truly  American,  and  to  him  I  was  drawn  for  his  bold 
speech  on  the  reception  of  Kossuth,  personally  regretting  the  elec 
tion  of  the  "  dark  horse  "  candidate  Pierce  in  1852. 

Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  quite  another  character,  a  Vermont 
boy  and  an  Illinois  school-master,  without  the  glamour  of  a  mili 
tary  career,  like  his  rival.  The  world  knows  of  the  great  debate 
with  Lincoln,  and  that  he  went  down  before  the  treachery  of  the 
South,  to  whose  interests  he  had  been  loyal,  if  not  subservient. 

The  author  of  "  Squatter  Sovereignty  "  was  supreme  in  sociabil 
ity,  fertile  in  expedients,  eloquent  and  fervid  in  discussions,  and 
aptly  mentioned  by  Mr.  Elaine  as  one  of  the  three  Parliamentary 
leaders  in  our  history.  Was  he  not  the  generous  rival  who  held, 
as  I  saw  him,  the  hat  of  Lincoln  at  the  inauguration  ?  Did  not 
his  endowment  of  Douglas  University  in  Chicago  with  land,  by 
the  dashings  of  the  lake  where  he  loved  to  linger,  and  with  money 
for  its  maintenance,  raise  him  to  the  fraternity  of  scholars  ?  That 
failure  which  has  passed  these  gifts,  which  are  a  monument  to  his 
generosity,  over  to  the  mortgagees,  is  only  another  evidence  of 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  65 

imprudence  or  a  betrayal  of  trusts,  yet  in  no  sense  a  disparage 
ment  of  the  giver,  who  was  a  liberal  friend  of  higher  education. 

His  speech  for  the  Union  on  the  firing  on  Fort  Sumpter  broke 
the  last  link  which  had  bound  him  to  the  car  of  ultraists,  and 
stamped  his  sovereignty  doctrines  as  only  the  dragon's  teeth  from 
which  sprang  John  Brown,  armed  men,  and  the  Border  war. 

That  he  was  a  national  idol  this  incident  will  be  in  proof. 
When  on  his  sick  bed  at  the  Tremont  House,  in  Chicago,  then 
being  brought  up  to  a  new  grade  by  the  aid  of  swarms  of  men,  a 
burly  laborer  came  to  the  superintendent  asking  for  a  day's  lay-off. 
"No!  I  want  more  men.  What  is  your  trouble?"  The  brave 
man  wept  silently,  and  said,  "  Sir,  how  can  I  work  below  when  my 
great  friend  is  up  there  dying?"  It  was  then  and  there  that 
Douglas  died  with  a  patriotic  prayer  for  the  success  of  our  arms. 
And  his  words  of  counsel  were  more  effective  for  the  Union  than 
the  service  of  a  general  in  the  field;  he  was  perhaps  a  greater 
character  in  our  history  than  if  President. 

THE    HOUSE    OF    REPRESENTATIVES 

is  remembered  for  characters  passed  into  history  as  bold  agitators. 
Georgia  sent  out  Toombs  and  Stephens,  exact  physical  and  mental 
antipodes.  Toombs  threatened,  tossing  his  hair  with  coarse  defi 
ance  and  pugilistic  airs.  Alexander  Stephens,  a  wan,  pale-faced 
skeleton  of  a  man,  piped  in  impassioned  strains  praises  of  the 
Union,  deprecating  as  in  later  years,  when  a  rebel  Vice-President, 
the  arbitrament  of  the  sword.  Brown,  of  Mississippi,  Lamar,  now 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  were  pronounced  fire-eaters ;  while 
Garrett  and  E.  M.  Pryor,  of  Virginia,  voluble  in  satire  and  fiery  in 
invective,  gave  assurance  that  the  day  of  collision  was  not  far  in 
the  future.  Mr.  Pryor  I  have  often  met  in  New  York  since  the 
war,  the  same  nervous,  sharp-featured,  tawny-complexioned  Virgin 
ian,  who  is  said  to  pride  himself  on  Indian  blood,  as  one  of  the 
large  traditional  family  of  Pocahontas. 

I  was  present  at  the  acrimonious  debate  between  this  Virginian 
and  Potter,  of  Wisconsin,  resulting  in  a  duel  challenge.  If  any 
thing  could  be  called  more  barbaric  than  slave-breeding  and  the 
code  in  Old  Virginia,  it  might  be  Potter's  choice  of  a  broadsword 
as  the  weapon,  which  his  challenger  declined.  It  more  than 
repelled  a  sneer  for  cowardice  at  the  North,  and  was  a  salutary 
lesson  for  braggarts. 


66  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

That  legislative  hall  was  like  a  tinder  box,  a  miniature  arsenal, 
many  of  the  leaders  armed  with  a  pistol  or  a  bowie-knife,  ready 
for  an  emergency.  The  North  was  to  be  bullied,  and  malcontents 
were  jeered,  even  Democrats,  if  not  shouting  the  party  shibboleth. 
James  H.  Lane,  of  Indiana,  afterward  Senator  from  Kansas,  said 
his  fall  by  a  duel  or  by  assassination  was  only  a  question  of  time. 
Not  toleration,  but  disunion  or  war  was  in  the  air. 

THE    RADICAL    GROUP. 

For  years  Clay,  Webster  and  Calhoun  were  in  public  esteem 
the  Senatorial  triumvirate.  Now  the  charm  was  broken,  and  who 
were  to  be  their  successors  in  national  fairik  ?  There  were  three, 
bold  and  able,  with  national  repute,  by  an  overruling  power  to 
enlighten  the  North,  while  staying  the  progress  of  the  slave  prop 
agandists.  These  were  Senators  Seward,  S.  P.  Chase  (whose  per 
sonality  and  service  I  have  given  elsewhere),  and  John  P.  Hale  of 
New  Hampshire. 

Could  there  have  been  statesmen  whose  words  were  better 
enforced  by  an  honored,  national,  public  career,  or  blessed  with 
more  varying  adaptations  by  native  gifts  for 'grand  and  decisive 
debate  ?  Senator  Hale  broke  the  shackles  of  party  on  the  admis 
sion  of  Texas,  and  had  enjoyed  the  honors  of  a  Free  Soil  Presi 
dential  candidate.  Jovial  in  social  life,  apt  in  repartee  and  story, 
without  fear,  and  free  from  party  shackles,  his  presence  was  an 
expectation.  There  was  humor  in  the  flashing  eye,  and  power  in 
the  sarcastic  tongue,  which  gave  him  all  the  qualities  of  a  minor 
ity  leadership.  His  wit  was  perennial,  and  powerful  in  repelling 
attacks. 

Senator  Seward's  speeches  taught  the  people,  while  he  was 
held  to  be  an  artful  Machiavelli  by  those  across  the  chamber. 
Always  in  good  temper,  and  never  prevoked  to  personal  retort. 

S.  P.  Chase  was  ready  with  the  law,  and  spoke  with  solemnity 
on  great  themes  which  he  had  studied,  not  in  threat,  but  in  a  spirit 
of  statesmanship,  which  was  above  slave  laws,  and  codes,  and  in 
defiance  of  creed  enactments.  A  towering  brow  and  great  purity 
of  character  were  only  tokens  of  a  conscientious  statesman. 

I  think  the  picture  of  Mr.  Chase,  standing  while  reading  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation,  and  his  face  on  the  greenback  which 
was  our  financial  savior,  striking  portraits  of  the  great  Senator. 


REMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY   YEARS.  67 

With  a  greenback  in  my  pocket  I  felt  that  I  carried  good  money, 
and  the  image  of  a  true  man  whose  nature  was  hearty,  loyalty 
unquestioned.  Chase  was  eminently  a  lawyer  rather  than  a  gifted 
orator.  He  was  denied  the  gift  of  humor,  but  the  solemnity  of 
manner  in  appeal  to  great  principles,  became  a  prophesy  of  his 
future.  He  was  afterward  Governor  of  Ohio,  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury — our  second  Hamilton — and  elevated  to  the  chair  of 
Chief  Justice,  where,  by  the  testimony  of  the  great  lawyers  of  that 
bench,  he  never  had  a  superior. 

He  was  a  great  student  fortified  to  assault,  and  a  severe  judge 
of  measures,  which  later  perplexed  Mr.  Lincoln.  The  Minister  of 
Finance  was  not  second  to  the  Minister  of  War,  and  delays  with 
failures  in  the  field  were  reprobated  at  least  by  indirection,  and 
Kadical  leaders  would  have  made  him  the  successor  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
after  his  first  term.  What  was  his  ambition  but  honorable? 
Others  were  sowing  and  reaping  where  he  had  prepared  the  soil. 
A  Cabinet  adviser  was  only  a  name,  and  there  was  110  ear  for  a 
Kadical  suggestion  in  prosecution  of  the  war,  and  a  promotion  to 
the  Chief  Justiceship  was  looked  upon  as  an  expedient  to  placate  a 
rival  who  personally  was  in  accord  with  the  radical  politics  of  But 
ler  and  Fremont,  and  Gen.  Phelps,  the  Louisiana  radical. 

Charles  Sumner,  after  a  contest  of  national  import,  was  elected 
Senator  in  place  of  Mr.  Webster.  Bearing  state  seal  and  commis 
sion,  he  was  never  a  place  seeker ;  was  a  student  and  companion  of 
Justice  Story,  and  the  author  of  the  "  True  Grandeur  of  Nations," 
which  has  linked  his  fame  with  the  world's  savants  and  orators. 

Mr.  Sumner  was  the  scholar  of  the  body,  and  in  his  first  term 
an  orator  unapproached  in  the  beauty  of  language  and  fervency  of 
appeal.  If  unlearned  in  parliamentary  law,  he  was  an  authority 
in  international  law,  and  our  statutes  and  their  interpretations 
were  quoted  as  readily  as  the  most  familiar  maxims.  It  was  an 
error  that  he  was  engrossed  with  a  single  idea.  The  wants  of 
incohate  states  found  in  him  an  advocate  on  a  high  plane  of  states 
manship.  The  wrongs  of  sailors  and  soldiers  were  not  overlooked, 
and  the  world  never  saw  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  in  its  full 
deformity  until  exposed  by  Sumner.  That  he  was  out  of  the  line 
of  a  Presidential  aspirant  lent  power  to  his  utterances,  and  pre 
pared  the  country  for  an  execration  of  slavery  in  the  crime  against 
Kansas,  and  the  assaults  of  an  assassin. 

In  native  personal  endowment  there  were  attractions,  added  to 


68  EEMINISCENCES   OF  FOBTT   YEARS. 

the  culture  of  a  scholar  and  marked  colloquial  vivacity,  which 
caused  him  to  become  the  envy  of  tread-mill  conservatives,  as  well 
as  the  idol  of  young  Americans.  I  forget  his  antagonisms  with 
Grant,  social  scandals,  infelicities,  and  that  temporary  clouding  of 
his  fame  on  the  fraternal  battle-flag  resolutions.  All  of  calamity 
incident  to  a  great  actor,  including  a  murderous  assault,  is  not  to 
be  mentioned  in  the  view  of  an  obverse  bright  shield  more  than 
heraldic.  The  fame  of  a  Nestor  in  the  Senate  was  reached.  The 
industry  and  unfaltering  devotion  of  a  public  servant  was  found  in 
volumes,  making  the  richest  contributions  to  our  national  history, 
by  a  statesman ;  and  apart  from  petulance  and  pedantry,  so-called 
by  indolent  inferiors,  his  career  stands  unchallenged  by  the  critics 
of  the  world. 

It  was  my  fortune  to  hear  his  first  Senatorial  speech  —  which 
was  in  debate  on  a  welcome  to  the  patriot  Kossuth.  It  was  of  all 
the  efforts  brief,  pathetic  and  classic,  a  prelude  to  a  rich  flavor  in 
debate,  with  an  elevating  tone  in  discussions,  led  by  a  supreme 
master  of  assemblies.  How  clear  the  tones  in  fascinating  cadence : 
"  Our  guest  waits  at  the  door  for  a  boon  of  hospitality  which  tyr 
anny  denies.  An  expatriated  hero  who  has  passed  the  Bosphorus 
to  meet  the  perils  of  the  ocean  on  a  patriotic  mission  sublime  as 
that  of  Lafayette.  Millions  wait  on  your  deed,  doubly  valued  by 
a  spontaneous  welcome."  All  the  previous  speeches  seemed  as 
cold,  studied  declamations,  contrasted  with  this  effort,  with  a  Sen 
ator,  a  man  and  soul  behind  it.  The  status  of  an  orator  was  fixed 
beyond  cavil,  as  that  of  a  never-setting  star  in  the  heavens. 
With  all  the  early  caricature  of  Mr.  Sumner  as  a  looking-glass 
declaimer,  one  never  found  him  in  an  encounter  trivial,  but  learned 
and  powerful  as  an  antagonist. 

After  the  Brooks  assault  on  Mr.  Sumner,  Massachusetts,  to  her 
honor,  kept  a  seat  for  the  wounded  Senator  while  in  Europe  —  par 
tially  restored  to  see  decades  of  service  after  the  great  traitors  had 
fled  the  chamber,  and  brutal  Brooks  had,  while  yet  a  young  man, 
been  called  to  his  final  account. 

Senator  Ben.  Wade,  of  Ohio,  comes  on  the  stage.  A  rough- 
spoken,  reputed  profane  man.  He  took  a  full  measure  of  men, 
and  bluster  only  set  him  in  defiance  of  fire-eaters,  who  never  made 
a  second  attack.  It  was  known  that  he  was  a  good  shot,  and  quite 
a  stranger  to  fear.  In  our  war  he  was  a  large  figure ;  not  popular 
in  the  chamber,  yet  brave,  and  an  oracle  with  the  masses  down 


REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY   YEARS.  69 

through  the  Johnson  impeachment  trial,  when  Wade  might  have 
been  a  successor  of  the  false  "  Moses." 

In  the  House  there  was  a  small  Radical  force,  but  effective  for 
attack.  The  old  man  eloquent,  John  Quincy  Adams,  had  passed 
away,  but  the  venerable  Horace  Mann,  of  national  fame,  had 
appeared  as  his  successor.  Joshua  R.  Giddings,  of  Ohio,  was  a 
bold  speaker,  and  in  the  use  of  stern  logic  called  out  barbarous 
imprecations,  and  an  expulsion  by  the  slaveholders,  which  gave 
him  greater  power  and  fame  on  a  re-election.  George  W.  Julian, 
of  Indiana,  the  Quaker,  became  a  progressive  educator.  Gen.  E,. 
C.  Schenck,  then  a  flaxen-haired  youth,  was  often  on  the  floor,  in 
service  with  bold  and  bitter  retorts. 

Thaddeus  Stevens  I  then  saw  for  the  first  time,  and  heard  in 
debate,  to  be  assured  that  in  a  majority  party  he  would  become  a 
dauntless  color-bearer.  The  "  Old  Commoner "  was  a  born  leader, 
more  than  able,  of  rare  perception  in  the  analysis  of  character, 
happy  in  assault,  firm  as  a  rock  to  resist  the  Hotspurs  of  the  day, 
and  the  evil  ambition  which  culminated  in  treason  and  war.  In 
the  overthrow  of  slavery  was  he  not  a  potent  helper  of  the  great 
War  Minister  Stanton,  and  our  great  army  captains  ? 

I  have  pictured  him  down  to  the  war  era,  execrating  rebels, 
later  drawing  the  greenback  bill,  and  securing  the  law  for  the  issue 
of  hundreds  of  millions  of  bonds,  certain  they  would  never  be  dis 
honored,  so  abiding  was  his  faith  in  our  cause  and  the  Nation. 

CONSCIENCE    WHIGS 

was  a  party  designation  of  the  time,  occasioned  by  a  bolt  upon  the 
nomination  of  President  Taylor,  who  had  earned  the  confidence  of 
Liberals,  while  they  distrusted  his  successor  Fillmore,  who  signed 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  Daniel  Webster  seemed  the  especial 
aversion  of  Charles  Allen,  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  leading  in 
denunciation  of  Mr.  Webster  for  receiving  a  subscription  of  tens 
of  thousands  of  dollars  in  Boston,  through  the  agency  of  Peter 
Harvey,  which  was  held  up  as  an  act  pensioning  the  betrayer  of 
Massachusetts.  I  listened  to  the  defense  of  Mr.  Webster  by 
George  Ashman,  of  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  and  by  Mr.  Hill- 
iard,  of  Alabama,  which  created  a  great  sensation.  My  predictions 
at  that  time  came  to  be  history.  The  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  was  struggling  to  conceal  its  spirit  in  the  Dred 


70  REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY  YEARS. 

Scott  decision.  I  could  see  no  settlement  of  the  slavery  question 
in  the  compromise  measures  which  precipitated  the  great  Kansas 
struggle,  involving  a  great  issue,  which  it  required  civil  war  to 
decide.  Southern  Senators  from  the  different  states  seemed  to 
hunt  like  beasts  of  prey,  in  couples ;  while  the  Radicals  on  the 
defensive  brought  to  their  aid  powerful  recruits  like  Wilson  of 
Massachusetts,  Fessenden  of  Maine,  and  Chandler  of  Michigan. 
The  lapse  of  forty  years  sweeps  every  one  of  these  great  actors 
mentioned  from  the  legislative  halls,  and  I  can  think  of  none  of 
the  number  conspicuous  who  have  not  passed  over  to  the  silent 
majority,  save  Eobert  C.  Winthrop  of  Massachusetts,  Hannibal 
Hamlin  of  Maine,  and  George  W.  Julian  of  Indiana. 

In  retracing  the  Radical  actors  of  four  decades  agone,  I  am 
moved  with  devout  gratitude  to  God  for  the  legislators  who 
became  instructors  by  speech  and  example  to  the  nation.  I  hold 
in  special  regard  those  "faithful  among  the  faithless  found," 
whose  cheeks  did  not  blanch  before  threats  and  violence,  and  were 
never  suspected  of  venality  in  the  marts  of  business,  or  in  the 
counsels  of  the  political  caucus.  All  men  have  not  a  price  for 
recreancy  to  principle  or  a  trust. 

A  biographical  estimate  of  the  foes  of  liberty  in  the  halls  of 
Congress,  in  a  study  of  those  who  lost  station  and  honor,  is  a 
measure  of  the  losses  by  perjury,  not  less  than  of  lives  clouded  by 
defeat  in  an  unholy  cause,  and  sorrows  of  war,  anew  enforcing  the 
Divine  admonition:  "They  that  take  the  sword  shall  perish  by 
the  sword." 


CHAPTER  V. 

Garrison — Whittier — Simms,  the  Fugitive — U.  S.  Marshal  D ev 
ens —  Caleb  Gushing — Henry  Wilson — Anson  P.  Burlingame 
—  Theodore  Parker. 

RADICALS  OF  1851. 

| 

REFORMERS  and  agitators  in  1851  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston  I 
have  grouped  from,  personal,  knowledge  gained  by -eye  and  ear — to 
me  valued  impressions  not  dimmed  by  strife  nor  lapse  of  time. 

Frederick  Douglass,  an  escaped  slave,  had  given  a  striking  nar 
rative,  couched  in  elegant  language,  and  with  fire  contrasted  with 
which  his  later  speeches  seem  tame.  His  long  career,  and  counsel 
to  his  race  to  put  money  in  the  purse,  which  he  followed  person 
ally,  has  fully  justified  the  prediction  of  his  most  ardent  friends  of 
fifty  years  ago,  who  have  traced  his  course  with  delight,  winning 
honor  as  an  oincial  in  Washington  and  a  diplomat.  The  general 
denunciation  of  the  time  was  bitter ;  to  be  met  by  the  press  voic 
ing  the  religionists,  contending  for  their  church,  while  politicians 
cared  not  to  peril  their  platforms  before  competing  slave-holders. 
Non-voters  were  deemed  fanatics  less  dangerous  than  the  Birney 
and  Hale  men,  who  chose  at  first  between  the  then  two  great 
debauched  parties. 

William  Lloyd  Garrison  could  by  right  wear  the  decorations  of 
a  general,  for  he  led  in  a  long  campaign  under  fire.  In  time,  he 
was  early;  radical  in  utterance,  persistent  and  uncompromising 
until  fairly  a  victor,  and  the  weapons  of  his  foes  were  broken  and 
scattered  like  the  arms  of  the  vanquished  on  retreat  from  the 
field  of  carnage.  The  most  brilliant  press  contemporaries  were 
obscured  by  the  editor  with  the  ready  pen  and  the  speaker  incisive 
and  logical  in  debate,  terrible  in  denunciation,  culling  the  burning 
words  of  the  old  Prophets  and  the  woes  uttered  by  the  God-man 
with  a  solemnity  and  force  sure  to  win  the  hearer,  or  arouse  doubt 
ers  in  frenzied  hate.  A  voice  whose  solemn  cadence,  with  a  pleas- 


72  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY  TEARS. 

ant,  wooing  countenance,  often  banished  prejudice  engendered  by 
slurs,  epithets,  and  common  vengeful  imprecation.  AVas  there 
ever  a  more  benevolent  face  ?  Or  a  spirit  calling  up  in  likeness 
the  mildness  of  reformers  and  intrepidity  of  martyrs  ?  The  man 
dominated  the  scene  and  turbulence  and  hisses ;  mobs  only  charged 
higher  the  battery  which  shocked  to  paralysis  the  demoniac  spirits 
rushing  out  to  assault,  but  never  subdued  to  hear.  I  saw  him  in 
the  New  York  Tabernacle  mob,  and  Captain  Rynders  was  reported 

to  have  said :  "  I  don't  care  a  d n  for  the  f  old  prophets/  but  it 

is  the  solemn  tone  of  old  bald-head  that  stirs  h — 1  in  me."  The 
audience  waited,  expecting  the  flash  of  pistols  and  blows  by  war 
clubs.  There  were  screams,  blanched  cheeks,  sudden  exits  midst 
the  howling  of  the  mob,  yet  Garrison  stood  erect  and  spoke  with 
out  a  tremor.  Benignant  in  smiles  while  lashing  in  execration  the 
cohorts  of  slavery,  foiled  by  a  mysterious  impersonation  of  the 
boldness  of  a  warrior  avowing  almost  satirically  only  a-  mission  of 
peace.  Then  strangers  found  a  key  unlocking  the  heart  and  brain. 
He  showed  no  fear  nor  uttered  a  murmur  when  drawn  by  the 
neck,  a  few  years  before,  through  the  streets  of  the  city  of  Boston, 
at  the  behest  of  a  slave-holding  mob.  History  tells  how  the 
shackles  fell  by  the  enginery  and  horrors  of  war  waged  for  dis 
union.  But  what  mind  can  grasp  the  educational  force  of  Garri 
son  and  his  Liberator,  nor  can  any  save  a  witness  realize  nis  social 
ostracism,  taunts  by  the  press,  and  the  misnamed,  pious  resolves 
by  the  Ecclesiastics,  and  solemn  official  bearers  of  the  holy  ark. 

Where  are  his  revilers  now?  What  child  is  proud  of  blood 
poisoned  by  sordid  trade,  and  the  venality  of  dough-faces,  whom 
charity  forgets  and  turns  from  their  deeds  with  averted  face. 
Eevilers  sleep  in  unhonored  graves.  The  valiant  once  outcast, 
with  a  price  on  his  head,  smiles  in  artistic  bronze  on  Common 
wealth  Avenue.  The  sentiment  he  holds  in  his  hand  gives  no 
prop  to  free  trade.  He  was  an  American  —  its  honor  first  is  the 
lesson  of  his  life.  I  saw  the  plaster  cast  in  the  artist's  studio  and 
gave  only  the  counsel  of  a  novice  —  make  it  say,  with  the  benig 
nant  face  of  John  Oberlin,  "  /  will  be  heard  f  "  The  sons  take  up 
"love's  work"  to  embalm  by  incident,  and  the  whole  record  of  the 
life  of  the  man  around  whom  rich  and  classic  compeers  revolved  as 
satellites,  in  a  day  when  the  vision  of  seers  was  clouded  and  the 
multitude  sent  out  the  hisses  of  hate. 

About  the  year  1850  the  cloud  of  obloquy  was  rising,  as  I 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  73 

recall  by  an  incident.  An  anniversary  was  observed,  on  the  found 
ing  of  the  Liberator,  and  politicians  of  the  class  of  Henry  Wilson 
were  present.  I  came  with  Thomas  Russell,  afterward  the  hus 
band  of  a  daughter  of  Father  Taylor,  who  said,  "  I  don't  know  that 
he  was  a  Christian,  but  he  was  a  sweet  sinner."  Certainly  he 
was  a  genial  friend  and  an  elegant  speaker,  afterward  politician, 
diplomat  and  able  judge. 

Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe,  wife  of  Dr.  S.  G.  Howe,  the  philan 
thropist,  I  met,  then  known  by  the  eminence  of  her  husband,  and 
ten  years  later  distinguished  as  the  author  of  the  "  Battle  Hymn 
of  the  Republic." 

I  was  in  association  with  the  Orthodox  clergy,  but  could  not 
admit  that  the  Rev.  Dr.  A.  Adams  represented  the  church,  only 
filial  recreancy,  when  declaring  in  an  emergency,  and  to  meet  a 
barbaric  behest,  that  he  would  send  his  own  mother  back  into 
slavery.  Dr.  Kirk,  whom  his  friend  and  student,  Dr.  D.  O.  Hears, 
has  justly  extolled  in  a  biographic  volume,  seemed  very  cautious  in 
the  pulpit.  The  eloquent  pastor  of  Park  Street  Church,  Dr.  Stone, 
later  of  San  Francisco,  was  in  sympathy  with  the  Washington 
church  movement,  while  the  Rev.  Henry  M.  Dexter  preached  defi 
antly  against  the  mandates  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  as  truly  in 
sympathy  with  the  radical  utterances  of  the  times  as  Dr.  Blagden, 
of  the  Old  South,  was  the  dispenser  of  the  gospel  of  union-saving 
and  silence.  To  him  I  was  introduced  by  his  brother-in-law, 
Wendell  Philips,  and  was  honored  with  an  invitation  to  preach  in 
the  Old  South  Church,  under  a  sounding-board,  making  my  first 
and  last  effort  in  the  historic  church,  where  its  galleries  made 
sleeping  apartments  in  the  Revolution,  and  the  soldiers  trained 
their  steeds  on  the  ground  floor.  Yet  this  was  a  less  novel  occur 
rence  than  the  fact  that  it  was  one  person,  myself,  who  was  intro 
duced  by  the  high-born  ornate  Edmund  Quincy,  presiding  at  a 
memorial  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  Garrison's  Liberator. 

It  was  the  talk  of  the  time  that  there  would  have  been  less 
than  the  usual  sleep  in  the  Old  South,  even  open-eyed  gaze,  had 
they  guessed  that  the  author  of  the  Sunday  sermon  was  to  be  the 
eulogist  of  Garrison  on  Monday.  I  was  thus  reported,  in  the 
speech,  strictly  impromptu : 

MB.  CHAIRMAN. —  Although  called  at  this  time  a  "  Cosmopolite,"  it  pleases  me 
much  at  such  an  hour  as  this  to  have  a  locality.  I  have  been  a  pastor,  with  the 
privilege  of  being  associated  with  men  whose  lives  were  linked  with  glorious 


74  REMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

causes.  I  call  to  mind  one,  in  all  places  a  man,  who  has  gone  to  his  great  reward. 
Living,  he  was  reviled,  but  at  his  death  there  was  such  universal  lamentation  as  is 
never  manifested  at  the  death  of  those  selfishly  prudent,  and  ever  "floating  with 
the  currents."  The  sundering  of  the  "little  thread "  reveals  what  is  in  the  hearts 
of  the  living,  and  there  are  many  who  must  die,  before  the  world's  decision  will  be 
given  in  full.  Mr.  Garrison,  the  honored  one  of  this  brilliant  assemblage,  is  such 
a  personage.  For  him  there  are  to  be  trumpet-tongues,  and  truth-telling  speech. 
(Applause.) 

Differing  from  him  in  many  things,  I  have  heard  the  say  of  all  classes.  Years 
agone,  when  a  lad,  I  heard  his  name  and  paper  mentioned  in  association  with  all 
that  is  dishonest,  indecent  and  intolerable.  He  was  under  the  foot  of  public  opin 
ion.  Like  the  lion  in  the  fable,  he  had  no  painter.  But  he  has  had  them  here, 
this  evening,  out  of  the  ranks  of  Free  Soil  men  —  all  professions  —  even  the  cau 
tious  of  the  Orthodox  often  associate  our  guest  with  integrity,  heroism  and  true 
humanity.  From  the  speech  of  slaveholders  in  private,  I  am  led  to  believe  they 
will  covet  the  honor  of  furnishing  his  biography.  (Cheers.) 

Orthodoxy  talks  of  hell.  But  who  finds  it  ?  They  surely  who  resist  their 
convictions.  I  have  said  it,  and  I  believe,  that  the  reformer,  unselfish,  asking 
Divine  guidance,  going  out  in  plans,  labors  and  devotions,  with  his  very  self  for 
human  weal  and  for  God,  cannot  find  a  hell.  Disregarding  sectarian  lines  in  this 
day  of  compromises  and  moral  bankruptcy,  it  little  becomes  us  to  make  consign 
ments/or  eternity,  when  Heaven  will  ask  of  all  as  concerning  our  honored  friend, 
Wm.  Lloyd  Garrison,  "What  did  he  do,  and  what  will  he  become  ?  "  (Applause.) 

As  the  hands  of  the  clock  admonish  us  that  we  are  near  the  morning  hour,  I 
will  sit  down,  Mr.  Chairman,  by  saying  that  I  have  slept  in  a  cabin  in  AVisconsin, 
on  a  high  point  of  land,  where  the  falling  rain  on  one  side  flowed  into  the  Fox 
river  to  make  the  leap  of  Niagara,  and  then  to  pass  on  down'  the  St.  Lawrence ; 
and  where,  on  the  other  side,  the  rain  cdursed  through  the  Wisconsin  down  to 
widen  the  "  Father  of  Waters."  A  strange  place,  and  the  beginning  of  mighty 
forces — finding  a  parallel  in  the  brain  before  me,  which,  for  twenty  years,  has 
made  highways  to  hearts,  North  and  South,  of  more  value  to  humanity  than  are 
the  ways  of  the  rivers  to  the  ocean  for  commerce.  May  that  brain  continue  to 
work,  moving  a  right  arm  to  beat  down  slavery,  and  a  left  to  raise  up  the  degraded 
at  home.  Let  us  pray  and  labor  for  that  day,  when  the  Pulpit  and  the  Politician 
shall  be  joined  in  hand  with  our  guest,  the  hero  of  the  press,  that  a  national  ejacu 
lation  may  be  heard  in  song,  "Jehovah  has  triumphed,  his  people  are  free." 
(Cheers.) 

The  company  separating,  Edmund  Quincy  said,  "As  you  are  a 
partial  stranger  in  Boston,  will  you  be  my  guest  at  Dedham,  where 
my  carriage  will  be  at  the  depot  ?  To  my  thanks  and  plea  for 
excuse,  he  said,  "I  not  only  live  near  a  most  venerable  orthodox 
D.  D.,  but  you  shall  sleep  on  the  bed  occupied  by  LaFayette, 
twenty-five  years  ago  a  guest  of  our  family,  and  on  the  pillow 
where  he  rested  his  princely  head,  and  as  your  name  indicates  a 
Frenchman,  I  venture  to  urge  you."  So  I  went  and  began  an 
acquaintance  with  a  most  accomplished  agitator,  and  son  of  one  ©f 
the  first  educators  and  statesmen  of  Massachusetts,  whose  figure,  a 
real  Harvard  president,  in  bronze,  stands  near  the  Boston  City  Hall. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS.  75 

John  G.  Whittier  was  present,  with  poetic  inspiration,  lending 
cheer  and  dignity.  Several  times  we  met  in  the  winter  at  the 
Marlboro  Hotel,  and  the  glance  of  that  keen  eye,  sober  mien,  and 
benevolent  face,  has  been  an  ever-present  picture,  and  his  every 
line  seemed  more  than  poetic  revery  —  a  gushing,  exhilarating  flow 
as  from  a  source  of  purity  for  the  cheer  of  the  timid  and  the 
famishing. 

In  a  picture  of  1849,  "  The  Champions  of  freedom,"  by  Brain- 
ard,  the  editors,  orators  and  statesmen,  have  all  gone  save  the 
crowned  poet  of  humanity.  Is  it  vanity  to  mention  his  letter  of 
congratulation  upon  my  birthday  ?  It  is  in  honor,  rather,  of  the 
writer  than  of  the  recipient,  but  time  will  only  add  to  its  value  to 
the  possessor.  It  is  a  pleasant  souvenir  that  I  should  be  known  in 
Iowa  and  approved  in  a  public  career  of  forty  years.  I  saw  the 
poet  later,  to  find  a  cordial  reception  at  his  home,  and  this  was 
the  visit,  as  described  at  the  time : 

John  G.  Whittier  I  have  just  seen  at  his  winter  residence  on  Oak  Knoll, 
Panvers,  Mass.  Just  37  years  ago  I  was  introduced  to  him  by  a  gallant  friend, 
Anson  Burlingame,  then  a  senator,  while  we  were  all  guests  of  the  old  Marlboro 
Hotel  of  Boston.  Mr.  Burlingame  he  mentioned  with  affection,  still  warm  in 
praise,  like  that  exhibited  in  his  verse,  so  often  the  nurse  of  volor  and  a  perpetual 
reminder  of  good  deeds  by  those  temporarily  under  the  ban  of  public  opinion. 
There  has  ever  been  mingled  balm  and  blessing  for  an  actor  enlisting  his  muse. 
Thus,  now  past  eighty  years,  he  stands  alone  the  poet  of  the  people,  and  still  offers 
fresh  and  mellow  fruitage.  Who  is  first  named  as  boldly  sweeping  the  lyre  when 
clanking  chains  sounded  out  our  shame  ?  What  name  is  first  invoked  to  celebrate 
our  second  century  under  the  Constitution  in  the  congregation  of  states  and  the 
world's  savans,  on  the  30th  of  April  ?  To  ask  for  the  poet  is  to  name  one  solitary 
in  the  just  accord  of  the  living  to  genius,  patriotism  and  virtue.  Mountains  in 
their  grandeur  never  shake  hands,  and  like  them  is  Whittier  —  alone.  Others  on 
the  journey,  his  peers  in  renown,  have  passed  beyond  embrace. 

I  pass  to  the  historic  Art  Hall  of  the  mansion.  There  is  a  metal  souvenir  of 
Sumner,  which  sat  in  front  of  him  while  conning  his  great  philippics,  an  elegant 
portrait  of  Bryant,  numerous  memoirs  of  the  slavery  struggle,  the  unloaded  Quaker 
gun  in  the  corner,  a  John  Brown  musket  facing  it  —  once  loaded.  The  most 
attractive  to  me  is  the  poet  of  40  in  life  form,  florid  face  and  full  muscle,  inviting  a 
contrast  with  the  eye  that  has  now  lost  its  brilliancy,  the  ear  duller  than  in  youth 
to  the  melodies  of  song.  Here  are  the  plaintive  and  sad  pictures  of  comrades  and 
heroes.  In  conversation  without  a  thought  of  privacy,  he  extols  my  idol  of  reform, 
Dr.  Gamaliel  Bailey,  of  Washington,  and  the  National  Era.  He  was  a  brave 
social  educator,  a  refined  gentleman,  who  could  lend  his  home  and  purse  in  rarest 
civility  and  welcome,  to  reformers  gathered  from  many  classes  and  lands,  waiting 
for  a  voice  and  a  friend.  I  ventured  the  name  of  Wendell  Phillips:  "Yes,"  with 
a  sad  cadence,  "  my  lifelong  friend  —  one  of  the  grandest  of  men  in  every  respect  of 
a  wonderful  career."  After  an  indirect  mention  of  various  persons  by  incident  and 
comparison,  it  could  not  be  concealed  that  he  held  a  different  position  from  Garri 
son  on  the  Sabbath  question.  But  John  Brown  was  the  striking  figure  in  the  cen- 


76  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

tury,  and  Wendell  Phillips  in  his  oratory  and  a  life  devotion  to  an  unpopular  cause, 
had  won  his  way  to  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  left  no  doubt  as  to  his  position  in 
the  world's  history  of  heroes. 

At  the  Garrison  meeting,  there  were  many  persons  then  claim 
ing  to  belong  to  the  royal  family  of  Eadicals  —  the  Jacksons,  the 
Mays,  Bowditehes  and  Pollens,  scholars  in  a  welcome  to  plebeians. 
Stephen  S.  Foster  was  launching  invectives  like  poisoned  arrows. 
His  wife,  the  Quakeress,  Abby  Kelley  for  years,  plain  in  speech 
and  in  person,  cornered  the  good  Friends  with  so  many  "buts," 
yet  the  butt  made  of  the  tree  the  biggest  end.  Ellis  Gray  Loring 
was  " throwing  himself  away"  in  his  profession,  and  smirching  the 
family  in  a  popular  view.  Kev.  Samuel  J.  May,  the  persistent 
agitator,  smooth  in  speech  and  captivating  in  address,  was  only 
typical  of  a  class  true  in  service,  but  less  conspicuous  in  the  stormy 
Boston  years  of  1850  and  1851.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  had  just 
been  enacted.  Sharadeck,  the  slave,  had  been  rescued  from  the 
officers,  and  on  trial  had  caused  chains,  in  fear  of  the  people, 
to  be  thrown  around  the  court-house  under  which  I  saw  judges 
crouch  in  shame  to  reach  their  bench.  Webster's  speech  of  March 
seemed  all  the  talk,  and  in  solemn  tones  to  be  reverberating  among 
the  hills,  meeting  the  anathemas  of  orators,  bringing  on  a  conflict 
not  in  theories  alone,  but  by  great  actors.  Devoted  friends  wept 
over  a  bid  for  the  presidency — trade  applauded. 

It  was  an  educational  era.  All  tradesmen  and  professional 
dependents  were  dumb,  but  off  the  pavements  the  freemen  of 
Massachusetts  had  broken  the  shackles  of  party,  and  one  great 
name  for  senator  became  a  source  of  inspiration.  It  was  Charles 
Sumner.  Could  he  be  elected  ?  Nathaniel  P.  Banks  was  made 
speaker,  and  the  opening  speech  on  taking  the  chair,  was  proof  of 
a  born  parliamentarian  and  orator,  who  later  graced  the  speaker's 
chair  in  Congress.  He  then  directed  with  fidelity  and  courage  a 
canvass  which  was  of  national  import  —  a  graduate  in  Taunton  of 
his  college,  under  which  there  was  a  water-wheel. 

The  captive,  Simms,  became  an  object  lesson  in  trial  and  rendi 
tion  ;  soldiers  with  national  arms  I  saw  drilling  ready  to  march  on 
an  enraged  populace;  judges  of  the  high  courts,  morose,  listless, 
like  official  servitors,  detesting  the  cruel  statute  they  had  sworn  to 
enforce ;  then  minor  officers  had  the  downcast,  sullen  look  of  lack 
eys.  The  Marshal  of  the  United  States,  Charles  Devens,  I  pitied 
in  his  vassalage  —  young,  elegant,  comely  —  guarding  the  return 


EEMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEAES.  77 

of  Simms  as  he  passed  him  down  to  the  boat  at  the  wharf  for  a 
Southern  prison-house,  stealthily  at  midnight,  when  friends  were 
in  slumber  and  the  stars  seemed  to  have  gone  out,  ashamed  to  wit 
ness  the  deed.  This  generation  forgets  that  the  young  Marshal 
Devens,  so  captivating  in  person,  was  later  a  fighting  major-gen 
eral,  cabinet  officer,  and  the  present  learned  judge  and  popular  ora 
tor.  I  do  not.  Socially  and  playfully,  twenty  years  after  the 
Simms  rendition,  I  recalled  my  impression  that  he  was  the  most 
captivating  gentleman  I  had  ever  seen  in  such  base,  official  service. 
"  Yes,  come  around,  and  I  will  tell  you  more  in  sequel.  I  was  an 
official,  young,  perhaps  with  common  aspirations,  but  not  in  sym 
pathy  with  the  law,  nor  had  I  a  doubt  as  to  the  future  trend  of 
opinion.  The  slave,  Simms,  I  bought,  and  gave  him  freedom  as 
soon  as  I  could  do  it."  Thus  the  State  and  Nation  comes  to 
regard  Mr.  Devens  the  man,  and  forgets  the  vassalage  as  an 
official. 

On  the  occasion  I  was  an  eye-witness,  being  called  out  at  mid 
night  by  Thomas  Russell,  afterward  diplomat  and  judge.  Theo 
dore  Parker  was  a  looker-on,  not  like  Paul,  standing  by,  assenting. 
A  hymn  was  lined, 

"Oh!  there  will  be  mourning,"  etc., 

which  Rev.  Mr.  Foster,  of  New  Hampshire,  later  a  soldier,  sung, 
as  if  voicing  with  solemn  bass  the  just  mockery  due  to  this  base 
deed  which  the  city  only  learned  by  the  morning  press.  Boston 
has  not  been  good  slave-hunting  ground  since  this  compound  polit 
ical  blunder  and  crime. 

Sumner  was  now  the  idol.  Before  the  Judges  in  Chambers  I 
saw  him  appear  in  habeas  corpus  appeal,  captivating  by  dignity, 
euphonious  voice,  and  bold  denunciation  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law.  For  weeks  the  excitement  was  intense.  Mr  Sumner  had 
a  card  with  Daniel  Webster's  autograph  of  a  few  years  before,  to 
be  shown  at  the  U.  S.  Senate  door : 

"  Admit  the  bearer,  Charles  Sumner,  always. 

D.  WEBSTER." 

Now  it  was  the  question,  shall  the  great  State  seal  and  verdict 
of  the  people  become  his  card  of  admission  to  a  seat  Webster  has 


78  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

vacated  ?  Sumner,  personally,  was  not  a  candidate  even ;  so  sen 
sitive  that  he  could  not  be  induced  to  modify  an  opinion,  or  even 
attend  a  social  party,  keeping  country  appointments  as  a  lecturer 
in  the  midst  of  the  contest. 

I  think  Caleb  Gushing,  far  from  the  status  of  a  "  Free  Soiler," 
with  a  few  personal  adherents,  held  the  senatorial  key.  The  illu 
sion  that  he  was  a  fortunate  dark  horse  in  the  senatorial  race,  was 
early  dispelled.  He  was  feared  and  not  without  reason.  A  Tyler 
political  marplot  in  Congress,  soldier  in  the  Mexican  war,  a  restive 
spirit,  and,  as  I  saw  him  later,  an  advocate  in  the  Supreme  Court, 
bland,  yet  persistent  in  great  cases  like  that  of  Mrs.  Gaines,  con 
tending  as  the  heir  of  hundreds  of  millions.  Dead,  there  is 
recalled  an  elegant  face,  the  man  like  a  race-horse  champing  the 
bit,  kept  from  a  start ;  his  unconscious  lips  were  in  motion  as  if 
conning  his  speech;  but  he  never  filled  so  large  a  space,  nor 
uttered  words  that  caused  louder  shouts  than  when  on  the  Senato 
rial  call,  he  responded,  "  Charles  Sumner."  That  settled  the  ques 
tion,  and  a  curtain  falls  on  the  State  House  drama,  transferring  the 
actors  to  the  streets,  whooping  in  glee,  and  weeping  and  embrac 
ing  with  the  fervor  of  Mexicans  in  parlors  and  club  rooms,  to  a 
late  hour. 

HENRY  WILSON,  THE  COBBLER. 

Wilson  was  the  busiest,  ever-present,  public  character  in  Bos 
ton  at  this  period  —  editor,  caucus  manager,  and  president  of  the 
Senate.  He  was  a  real  shoemaker  in  his  early  days,  and  named 
the  "Natick  cobbler".  Webster  had  publicly  praised  his  political 
speeches,  and  they  were  warm  friends  up  to  the  revolt  of  the 
" Conscience  Whigs"  in  1848,  going  for  Van  Buren,  free-soiler, 
Adams  and  liberty.  "  That  was  the  trial  of  my  life,"  said  Wilson. 
"  I  was  poor,  but  had  an  ambition  for  promotion  within  my  reach." 
It  may  not  be  credited,  still  it  is  a  truth,  that  native  American 
ideas  and  plans  were  important  factors  at  this  crisis.  Foreigners, 
as  a  rule,  were  democratic.  "None  but  Americans  on  guard," 
was  a  popular  and  square  issue.  Certainly  the  head  men  of  the 
order  were  jubilant  in  seeing  Mr.  Wilson  president  of  the  Senate. 
It  was  curious  how  I  came  to  know  Mr.  Wilson  so  well.  The 
Sumner  Free-Soil  caucus  would  be  held  far  into  the  night,  and, 
quite  a  night-hawk  myself,  at  the  Marlboro  Hotel,  with  not  a 


REMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY   YEARS.  79 

vacant  room  in  the  house,  I  invited  my  new  friend  to  share  a  bed 
in  emergency.  Would  he  never  sleep !  The  outlook  of  men  and 
ways  at  Washington  prompted  questions  for  hours.  There  was 
not  one  but  frequent  rests  in  my  room,  on  the  train  having  gone 
and  the  house  being  full.  In  frankness  he  said :  "  My  chances  for 
Congress  are  gone.  I  am  too  early  by  ten  years,  and  I  shall  go  to 
the  rear  and  give  room  to  adventurers  with  family  and  money,  of 
which  I  have  neither."  Nothing  is  more  creditable  to  the  spirit  of 
the  time  than  his  election  to  the  United  States  Senate  and  Vice- 
Presidency  by  the  aid  of  scholars,  soldiers  and  millionaires.  He 
had  a  rare  fund  of  good  sense ;  of  temperate  habits,  turning  down 
his  glasses  at  dinners  when  others  drained  them;  and  in  truth 
could,  in  the  latter  part  of  his  political  career,  refuse  thousands  in 
his  poverty  —  a  tribute  to  unquestioned  probity  maintained  amidst 
the  great  opportunities  of  the  Civil  War.  He  had  little  love  for 
sharp  debate,  yet  did  not  shrink  in  contest  with  Judge  Black  on 
the  legal  status  of  Secretary  Stanton,  his  friend.  Truly,  a  simple, 
great-hearted  patriot.  While  sitting  in  the  president's  chair  in  the 
senate,  he  sent  down  his  card,  as  I  was  then  a  visitor  from  Iowa, 
asking  me  to  meet  him  in  the  marble  room.  There  he  presented 
me  his  volumes,  "Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power,"  with  the 
regards  of  the  author.  He  sighed  for  an  escape  from  enforced 
silence  in  his  chain.  "  I  have  no  money,  nor  any  prospect  of  ser 
vice  soon.  How  I  wish  I  was  West,  an  owner  of  stock  and  farm, 
away  from  the  voice  of  a  coming  storm."  While  loyal  to  Grant, 
there  was  no  praise  for  his  personal  rule  nor  sympathy  in  his  treat 
ment  of  Senator  Sumner. 

Let  it  be  told,  Vice-President  Wilson  aspired  to  be  Grant's 
successor — this  is  not  a  guess,  but  a  weak  and  wild  ambition, 
indulged  after  a  partial  period  of  paralysis  which  impeded  his 
speech.  In  fact,  he  never  was  a  fluent  orator  —  measured  and 
slow,  with  thoughts  too  heavy  for  tongue,  like  Webster  —  an  invol 
untary  assimilation  to  one  of  whom  he  was  proud  to  be  called  a 
protege. 

As  to  persons,  parties  and  national  history,  he  was  the  best 
informed  Senator  of  his  time,  and  a  story-teller  of  great  resources, 
hearty  in  laughter. 

The  mortification  in  his  Senatorial  career  was  on  the  advent  of 
the  "  Black  Crook "  theatrical  troupe.  By  repute,  it  was  a  poorly- 
dressed  company,  and  on  a  banter,  thoughtlessly,  cheap  gallery 


80  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETT   YEAES. 

tickets  were  procured  for  several  Senators  and  Representatives. 
The  theatre  manager  was  apprised  of  their  arrival,  and  ordered 
them  to  be  conducted  in  a  body  to  the  most  conspicuous  seats.  It 
proved  to  be  more  than  a  boyish  —  a  Senatorial  lark  —  when  the 
usher,  with  the  lungs  of  a  Senator,  announced  the  Honorable  Sen 
ate  of  the  United  States.  In  later  years  Mr.  Wilson,  recounting  it, 
said,  "It  was  the  worst  sell  of  my  life,  and  my  first  and  last  visit 
to  the  antics  of  shameless  'Black  Crook7  performers.  To  have 
left  the  house  would  have  made  the  trick  more  conspicuous,  which 
was  played  by  one  of  our  company,  but  never  forgiven." 

In  the  last  years  of  his  public  life  he  visited  Iowa  to  see  a  prai 
rie  for  the  first  time.  At  Des  Moines  the  citizens  proposed  a  ban 
quet  in  his  honor.  "  No ;  if  I  have  another  night  in  Iowa,  it  will 
be  spent  with  Grinnell,  with  whom  in  an  emergency  I  used  to 
lodge  in  Boston,  when  both  beds  and  money  were  scarce."  He 
was  given,  in  my  house,  the  bed  that  had  rested  John  Brown,  and 
at  a  meeting  in  the  park  he  spoke  to  a  crowd  of  admirers,  and  not 
long  after  died  by  a  paralytic  stroke  in  the  Vice-President's  room 
at  Washington.  A  man  of  courage,  but  holding  that  the  duel  code 
was  a  barbarism.  For  stimulants  there  was  a  hereditary  taste,  but 
his  temperance  career  was  brilliant  as  a  speaker,  and  as  President 
of  the  National  Temperance  Society,  he  rendered  exemplary  serv 
ice,  aided  by  the  finances  and  intrepidity  of  the  late  William  E. 
Dodge. 

ANSON    P.    BURLINGAME, 

then  Senator,  was  the  personal  antithesis  of  Wilson,  and  in  the 
Sumner  campaign  marshal  of  the  young  political  cohorts,  cultured, 
magnetic  as  an  orator,  genial,  the  facial  Adonis  of  the  Senate. 
Of  much  of  his  history  this  generation  knows  little. 

He  married  the  daughter  of  Isaac  Livermore,  the  financier  of 
Charleston.  Night  work  and  full  rooms  made  him  often  a  bed 
fellow  at  my  rooms  in  the  Marlboro.  Then  there  was  no  conceal 
ment  of  his  ambition  to  go  to  Congress,  as  he  did,  rising  to  the 
rank  of  treaty  maker,  as  diplomat,  and  at  last  the  honored  plenipo 
tentiary  servant  of  China. 

Poverty  had  given  him  stamina,  and  a  residence  on  the  frontier 
in  Michigan  cultivated  the  taste  of  a  sportsman,  in  which  was 
found  recreation.  On  the  assault  of  Senator  Sumner,  in  Wash- 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS.  81 

ington,  by  "Bully  Brooks,"  of  South  Carolina,  Burlingame  was 
with,  one  voice  chosen  to  execrate  the  murderous  deed,  and  speak 
for  insulted  Massachusetts.  A  finer  philippic  in  indignation  and 
arraignment  under  parliamentary  law,  can  not  be  found  in  the 
language. 

Burlingame,  with  towering  indignation,  said  of  Brooks'  cow 
ardly  act,  "I  denounce  it  in  the  name  of  the  sovereignty  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  which  was  stricken  down  by  the  blow ;  I  denounce  it  in 
the  name  of  humanity;  I  denounce  it  in  the  name  of  civilization, 
which  it  outraged;  I  denounce  ifc  in  the  name  of  that  fair  play 
which  even  bullies  and  prize-fighters  respect.  What!  Strike  a 
man  when  he  is  pinioned  —  when  he  cannot  respond  to  a  blow! 
Call  you  that  chivalry?  In  what  code  of  honor  did  you  get  your 
authority  for  that?"  It  stung  the  assassin;  and  the  reputed  high 
blood,  taken  with  the  wounding  of  the  pride  of  South  Carolina, 
required  a  resort  to  the  code  duello.  Burlingame  received  the 
challenge  and  accepted  it,  naming  Canada  by  Niagara  Falls,  as  the 
place,  and  the  weapons  rifles,  and  the  range  so  near  that  the  shots 
must  be  fatal,  and  on  neutral  soil  with  less  fear  of  arrest.  The 
coward  did  not  accept ;  expelled  from  Congress,  he  died  with  the 
brand  of  personal  infamy,  and  a  disgrace  to  the  chivalry  of  his 
state.  What  was  the  status  of  Burlingame  ?  Praised  for  his 
matchless  speech,  feted  for  courage,  even  admired  by  moralists 
who  were  happy  in  the  explosion  of  an  idea  that  the  North  had 
only  the  blood  of  "craven  agitators."  It  ended  challenges  for 
words  in  debate  by  the  South,  under  their  code. 

Burlingame  I  met  at  the  Chicago  Convention  on  the  nomination 
of  Mr.  Lincoln  in  1860,  both  being  delegates,  and  that  was  the 
scene  of  an  ovation.  Judge  William  D.  Kelley,  of  Pennsylvania, 
late  Nestor  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  had  spoken  from  a 
stand  for  receiving  the  delegations  in  open  air.  Also,  that  great 
stump  orator,  Henry  S.  Lane,  of  Indiana,  who  began,  "I  am  the 
next  Governor  of  Indiana,  and  I  see  you  are  glad  to  see  me,  and 
the  feeling  is  heartily  mutual." 

I  hinted  by  a  whisper  to  the  chairman  that  Burlingame,  of 
Massachusetts,  would  stir  up  the  boys. 

"  Bring  him  near  and  introduce  him ;  my  voice  is  all  gone." 

I  need  not  say  that  the  orator  was  loaded  for  that  occasion. 
This  was  my  introduction  as  reported : 

"The  nation  has  heard  of  an  invitation  made  to  one  Brooks, 


82  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

the  cowardly  assailant  of  Sumner,  to  cross  the  Canadian  border; 
there  would  have  been  no  farcical  arrest;  no  burlesque  of  coffee 
and  pistols,  but  rifles  at  short  range.  Where  was  your  chivalry, 
declining  before  the  high  blood  of  a  Puritan  cavalier  of  Massachu 
setts  ?  He  is  here  to  speak." 

How  his  voice  did  ring  out;  only  drowned  by  cheers  as  he 
made  Gov.  Banks  his  candidate  —  the  schooled  mechanic,  Speaker 
of  Congress,  the  "iron  man".  That  crowd  would  have  nominated 
Burlingame  before  Banks  or  Lincoln.  I  dined  with  him  in  1861 
in  Washington,  and  recall  this :  "  I  am  a  restless  spirit  and  have  an 
ambition  to  see  the  world  and  serve  abroad."  He  was  early  made 
Minister  to  China  by  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  in  1867  became  the  Ambas 
sador  of  China  to  this  country  and  to  all  the  powers  of  Europe,  a 
post  which  he  held  until  his  death  in  1870.  If  it  was  a  distinction 
to  draw  a  larger  salary  than  received  by  any  American,  there  was 
a  higher  honor  in  diplomatic  service  for  hundreds  of  millions  of 
people  whose  gates  have  been  barred  against  the  English  people 
for  centuries.  He  had  his  faults  and  foibles,  but  what  American 
was  not  happy  for  the  fortunes  of  a  gentleman  of  culture  who  low 
ered  the  plumes  of  southern  chivalry,  and  won  officially  more  than 
a  President's  power,  and  at  his  death  a  wreath  of  honor  which  the 
subjects  of  Kings  had  striven  for  in  vain? 

THEODORE    PARKER. 

While  on  the  Eadical  list,  I  do  not  omit  Theodore  Parker,  a 
by-word  name,  being  by  the  popular  say  an  infidel  and  a  Garrison- 
ite.  To  me  he  was  logical  in  debate,  yet  heavy  as  contrasted  with 
Phillips.  He  was  a  Harvard  scholar  —  a  theological  debater  and  a 
living  protest  against  the  Unitarian  Church  which  disowned  him, 
but  could  not  keep  the  curious  boys  from  his  people's  church, 
where  were  the  blendings  of  heresy  and  caricatures  of  doxy  and 
conservatism,  most  shocking  to  philosophy.  He  was  rather  deep 
than  clear  to  the  masses,  and  the  multitude  of  his  volumes  and  his 
linguistic  erudition  made  him  the  peer  of  scholars.  His  sermon  on 
'Immortality"  eclipses  all  in  freshness  and  vigor.  For  inciting 
the  rescue  of  a  .detained  fugitive,  he  had  the  honor  of  an  indict 
ment  by  jury,  yet  not  a  burlesque  trial.  He  was  a  rare  scholar, 
greatly  missed  by  his  intimate  friends,  who  lamented  the  cool, 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  83 

brave  spirit  holding  forth  to  crowds  in  Music  Hall,  until  a  fatal 
disease  drove  him  to  Florence,  where  he  died.  He  was  vigorous 
and  original  in  thought,  inciting  the  schools  and  the  calmer  speech 
of  Boston  in  praise  for  the  gift  of  a  library  of  13,000  volumes. 
This  act  softened  the  enmity  against  the  dead  patriot  and 
reformer. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

"Go  West,  Young  Man,  Go  West" — Out-door  Speaking  in  New 
York — Failure  of  Voice — Horace  Greeley's  Advice — Copy  of 
Greeley's  Letter — Proposed  Colony — Turned  from  Missouri  by 
Slavery — Protege  of  Henry  Farnam — Railway  Magnate — 
Fortunate  Location  of  the  City  of  Grinnell. 

INTEREST  attaches  to  those  incipient  public  acts  which  have 
brought  beneficent  results.  The  story  of  the  Genesis  of  Grinnell 
has  been  told  in  consecutive  letters  to  the  children.  Their  study 
will  be  of  value  to  living  cotemporaries,  possibly  stimulating 
co-operation  in  efforts  for  organized  emigration. 

Conspicuous  failures  in  attempts  at  organized  emigration  have 
been  many,  but  in  common  association  with  sordid  grasping  and 
the  strife  of  ambitious  leaders,  which  should  not  detract  from  the 
policy  in  the  founding  of  settlements  like  that  described  in  this 
simple  narrative.  There  was  Marietta  in  Ohio,  founded  in  patri 
otic  protest  against  slavery,  from  which  Marietta  College  sprang. 
Oberlin,  Ohio,  came  to  be  through  the  agencies  of  capitalists  and 
devoted  men,  in  a  land-purchase  and  college,  the  result  of  labors  of 
pioneers  gone  to  their  reward,  whom  later  generations  can  never 
forget.  Their  fortitude,  and  consecration  to  principle  and  a  great 
educational  scheme,  require  no  monument  for  perpetuation.  Gales- 
burg,  Illinois,  had  a  land  company  investing  in  rich  soil,  and  a 
college  scheme,  the  product  of  capital,  experience  and  devotion. 
The  city  of  Greeley,  Colorado,  can  be  cited  with  a  charmed  his 
tory.  Enriched  by  water  supply,  with  rare  attractions  of  climate, 
it  had  oneness  of  moral  sentiment,  with  union  in  labor,  while  under 
the  ban  of  intolerance  and  ridicule.  These  cities  had  the  details 
of  action,  and  corporate  powers,  with  names  now  noted  in  philan 
thropic,  wise  purpose.  What  there  was  in  the  founding  of  Grin 
nell  was  an  unwritten  purpose  under  the  hat  of  one  man,  waiting 
on  opportunity.  Formal  unity  in  action  "there  was  none.  The 
whirl  of  the  horses  to  the  carriage,  and  striking  alone  for  the  land 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETT   YEAES.  85 

office  while  his  comrades  debated  localities,  was  an  assumption, 
and  the  decisive  act  which  led  to  what  follows  of  incident  or  story. 
It  is  a  fresh  version  of  sacrifices  and  successes,  related  to  the  epi 
sodes  and  romance  of  thirty-six  years  ago,  and  much  like  the  devo 
tion  of  the  founders  of  Denmark  Academy,  and  the  heroic  personal 
and  pecuniary  sacrifices  of  our  brothers  of  Tabor  College  on  the 
west,  worthy  to  be  written  in  letters  of  gold.  Here  are  the 
letters : 


My  Dear  Children : 

With  pleasure,  and  I  trust  with  profit  to  the  great  cause  of  the  Master,  I  was  the 
pastor  of  the  Union  Congregational  Church  of  the  city  of  New  York  for  three  years. 
Devoted  and  noble  as  were  the  people,  with  large  plant  for  church  extension  and 
removal,  I  was  to  leave  them.  It  came  about  in  this  way,  under  God's  providence. 
Speaking  intemperately  in  the  open  air  at  the  ship-yards  in  New  York,  in  1852-3, 
was  indirectly  the  occasion  of  my  expatriation  to  the  West. 

William  H.  Webb,  the  great  ship-builder  on  the  East  River,  furnished  timber 
for  comfortable  seats  occupied  by  non-church  goers,  and  workmen  coming  out 
with  their  families,  where  there  was  good  singing,  order  and  spirit,  which  lent  to 
the  service  at  least  the  charm  of  novelty. 

Among  those  interested  in  the  ragged  schools  and  out-door  talk  of  the  laymen, 
there  were  Hon.  William  E.  Dodge,  the  eminent  Christian  philanthropist ;  also, 
ex-attorney  general  of  the  Uuited  States,  Benjamin  F.  Bntler.  He  was  a  specimen 
of  a  courtly  "elect  Democrat",  whose  Sandy  Hill  "stated  preaching"  correspon 
dence  while  of  the  Van  Buren  regency  of  an  early  day,  was  the  occasion  of  irrever 
ent  talk.  William  Allen  Butler,  author  and  satirical  poet  in  "Miss  Flora  Me 
Flimsey,"  is  a  son  who  perpetuates  the  name  of  a  father  not  less  distinguished  as  a 
Christian  gentleman  than  a  lawyer. 

The  following  letter  furnishes  an  historic  and  ludicrous  inci 
dent  of  the  times,  related  to  a  distinguished  character  : 

The  boy's  school  in  my  charge  on  Sixth  street  is  crowded.  It  is  composed  of 
strolling,  poorly-clad  orphans,  and  venders  of  newspapers,  a  smart  but  rough  set. 
They  demand  a  varied  entertainment,  and  I  secured  the  promise  of  an  address  from 
the  great  lawyer  and  politician,  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  once  attorney-general  of  the 
United  States  under  Gen.  Jackson.  I  had  the  promise  of  quiet  and  correct  deport 
ment  in  his  honor.  Mr.  Butler,  a  pleasant,  venerable  gentleman,  was  presented,  to 
be  heartily  cheered.  He  asked,  "  Boys,  what  shall  I  speak  about  ?  "  "  Anything!  " 
"How  long  ?"  "  Twenty  minutes,  thirty  if  awful  good,"  shouted  one.  "Call  it 
twenty,"  said  Mr.  Butler,  "and  that  is  a  Sunday  trade,  but  you  must  keep  quiet." 
"And  I  will  time  you,  boss,"  said  a  leader,  upon  which  there  was  a  show  of 
watches.  This  seemed  to  occasion  a  little  nervousness  on  the  part  of  the  speaker. 
A  simple  and  elegant  address  was  made,  but  the  application  was  not  reached 
when  the  shout  went,  "  Time's  up !  Time's  up !  "  "  But  I  have  a  concluding  story 
for  you."  "  No,  no!  A  bargain  is  a  bargain  if  it  is  Sunday."  I  came  to  the  res 
cue,  saying  that  this  venerable  gentleman  was  not  used  to  such  rudeness.  The 
reply  was,  "We  keep  our  contract;  time's  out.  No  stories."  Mr.  Butler  arose,  a 


86  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

louder  shout,  "Time's  up!"  drowning  all  words  of  persuasion,  with  a  threat  of 
going  to  dinner,  and  causing  such  a  tumult  that  Mr.  Butler,  a  picture  of  mortifica 
tion,  sat  down,  and  fearing  a  second  guy  as  to  time,  left  the  superintendent  help 
less,  and  the  boys  masters  of  the  situation. 

In  the  morning  I  went  down  to  the  lawyer's  office  to  take  the  apology  of  the 
school,  and  the  promise  of  less  rudeness  on  another  visit,  also  my  own  regrets. 
"No  second  visit  \"  I  was  mortified.  "  Before  thousands  I  have  spoken  in  open 
air ;  in  our  higher  court  for  years,  with  toleration  at  least ;  but  I  never  met  such  a 
rebuff  in  all  my  life,  and  I  am  clear  of  another  exposure  before  the  vagrants.  It 
was  a  blunder  of  course  in  the  fixing  of  the  time,  and  I  had  not  got  to  the  story. 
Let  it  pass.  They  had  too  many  bull's-eye  watches,  and  it  was  both  the  sharp  and 
rough  experience  in  my  career  as  a  speaker,  for  which  I  blame  no  one  but 
unwashed  Young  America." 

Mr.  Horace  Greeley,  the  great  editor,  was  often  a  speaker  on 
temperance,  with  others  less  known  to  fame.  The  meetings  came 
to  be  the  resort  of  curious  gentlemen  in  their  carriages,  and  even 
the  notorious  Tweed,  afterward  the  convicted  plunderer,  then  an 
alderman,  would  be  present  and  slyly  hand  out  a  golden  eagle 
in  compliment  to  the  service.  One  Sunday  I  quite  broke  down 
with  hoarseness.  Mr.  Greeley  was  in  the-  rear  of  the  crowd,  but 
he  did  not  come  forward  to  my  relief,  as  was  his  custom  at  various 
meetings,  when  called  upon  for  the  closing  words. 

I  made  my  way  to  the  Tribune  office  the  next  morning  to  chide 
Mr.  Greeley  for  not  coming  to  my  aid  in  an  emergency,  saying  my 
last  effort  was  made.  "  Well,"  said  he,  "  the  crowd  was  large,  and 
I  did  not  like  to  push  through  it ;  but  you  are  laid  by,  no  doubt ; 
only  don't  get  ready  for  a  fashionable  European  health  trip,  or  to 
lounge  in  the  city,  which  is  no  place  to  stay  except  with  occupation 
and  good  health.  Go  West,  young  man,  go  West.  There  is  health 
in  the  country,  and  room  away  from  our  crowds  of  idlers  and  imbe 
ciles.7'  "  That,"  I  said,  "  is  very  frank  advice,  but  it  is  medicine 
easier  given  than  taken.  It  is  a  wide  country,  but  I  do  not  know 
just  where  to  go."  "  It  is  all  room  away  from  the  pavements.  I 
want  some  one  at  once  to  take  a  trip  for  the  Tribune,  and  write  me 
from  the  Illinois  State  Fair,  at  Springfield.  You  can  do  it.  Solon 
Robinson,  the  agricultural  editor,  says  you  have  knowledge  of  ani 
mals.  I  doted  on  the  trip  myself ;  but  you  make  the  best  report 
you  can.  I  will  see  that  you  have  railway  passage,  and  will  write 
you  a  letter  which  will  secure  you  attention  and  a  chance  to  do  us 
service,  and  make  a  spread  in  your  own  way." 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS.  87 

This  is  the  letter  he  handed  me : 

NEW  YORK,  Sept.  25,  1833. 

Mr.  J.  B.  Grinnell  of  this  city  visits  the  Illinois  Agricultural  State  Fair  at 
Springfield,  111.,  and  will  report  therefrom  for  The  Tribune.  I  pray  you  to  show 
him  whatever  courtesy  you  may  fairly  do,  and  enable  him  to  give  us  a  full  report 
of  the  Fair.  Yours, 

HORACE  GREELEY. 
To  the  editor  of  the  State  Journal,  Springfield,  III. 

I  had  a  fine  time  every  way,  and  made  a  lengthy  report  which 
was  acceptable,  and  opened  the  way  indirectly  for  much  that  fol 
lows  in  narration. 

This  answers  the  queries  and  gives  the  facts  in  regard  to  the 
more  than  legendary  counsel,  "  Go  West,  young  man,  go  West "  — 
a  shot  at  thousands  of  dullards  since  my  day ;  I  was  the  young 
man  whom  Mr.  Greeley  told  to  go,  and  I  went.  I  have  never 
found  occasion  to  regret  the  fact  that  I  was  a  protege  of  his — a 
life-long  correspondent  and  friend.  I  record  the  warm  tribute  of 
my  heart  to  the  greatest  American  Journalist,  who  not  only  made 
public  my  "Badger"  letters,  but  received  and  printed  what  would 
be  equal  to  a  volume,  in  praise  of  Iowa.  On  his  last  visit  to  our 
state  he  wrote  that  he  had  seen  the  model  city,  in  respect  to  mor 
als  and  education.  , 

THE    PLAN    OF    SETTLEMENT. 

My  voice  being  impaired,  the  delicacy  of  my  child  requiring 
the  tonic  of  country  air,  furnished  strong  and  added  inducements 
to  make  plans  for  western  emigration.  On  returning  from  my 
western  and  Missouri  trip,  I  elaborated  a  scheme  which  the  stu 
pidity  of  another,  with  several  casualties,  would  not  allow  to  go 
into  full  execution.  In  the  New  York  Tribune  and  New  York 
Independent  I  advertised  for  correspondence  with  parties  desirous 
of  educational  facilities,  and  of  temperance  and  Congregational 
affinities,  who  wished  to  settle  on  some  new  western  railroad  or 
one  projected. 

"  Colonist "  was  my  address,  and  both  Mr.  Greeley  and  Joshua 
Leavitt  had  vouched  for  the  character  and  good  faith  of  "  Colo 
nist."  Then  I  wrote  short  articles  in  the  line  of  my  project, 
against  isolated  emigration  and  in  favor  of  associating  for  frater 
nal  social  good. 


88  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY  YEARS. 

Each  year  of  my  western  stay  has  confirmed  its  philosophy, 
and,  had  I  met  a  failure,  the  advantages  of  homeogeneous  settle 
ment  could  not  be  gainsaid.  It  brought  a  legion  of  answers,  with 
troops  of  professionals  and  aspiring  marshals,  as  if  sure  of  the 
privates  for  troops.  I  wish  they  were  at  hand  in  refutation  of 
Bellamy  and  his  Utopian  romance,  "Looking  Backward,"  before 
a  possible  new  edition  —  a  burlesque  on  the  facts  in  human  nature 
as  revealed  by  my  project. 

Those  comfortable  in  riding  are  not  found  voluntarily  taking  a 
walk,  or  drawing  a  load  in  traces,  if  having  honestly  earned  and 
paid  for  an  easy  passage.  Our  scheme  was  a  plain  rural  life,  with 
patience  to  wait  and  grow,  like  the  products  of  agriculture,  to  the 
stage  of  fruit,  shade,  culture  and  repose  for  age.  My  scheme  I 
knew  was  not  Utopian,  but  broad,  generous  and  beneficent ;  and  I 
now  see  that  it  was  by  an  unseen  hand  I  was  led  and  upheld. 

The  following,  from  The  Independent,  was  one  of  the  articles  to 
which  I  refer : 


An  advertisement  in  The  Independent  relating  to  a  Western  enterprise,  seems 
to  furnish  occasion  for  a  brief  discussion  of  a  topic  with  manifold  relations. 

The  tide  of  emigration  westward,  whether  for  good  or  for  ill,  can  no  more  be 
Stayed  than  the  course  of  the  gulf-stream.  The  late  census  returns  furnish  proof 
of  the  general  health  of  the  western  states.  Owners  of  stocks  valued  at  a  hundred 
millions  of  dollars,  invite  the  enterprising  to  make  a  home  on  new  soil,  to  subserve 
the  interests  of  both  capitalist  and  producer.  The  last  year,  the  present  and  the 
next,  will  span  the  prairies  and  groves,  hitherto  almost  without  an  inhabitant,  with 
more  than  a  thousand  miles  of  railroad ;  so  that  the  hardships  of  frontier  life  shall 
no  more  be  brought  to  mind  by  the  multitudes  of  pioneers  "ticketed  through" 
to  the  cheapest  and  most  fertile  lands  on  the  continent.  Landholders  in  the  east 
are  buying  out  the  small  proprietors ;  and  while  the  vocation  of  a  farmer  is  yearly 
becoming  more  profitable  and  honorable,  rich  soil  westward,  only  a  two  days'  jour 
ney  distant,  will  be  purchased  at  $5  the  acre,  rather  than  inferior  soil  eastward  at 
$50.  Economical  considerations,  combined  with  the  adventurous  spirit  and  mod 
ern  facilities  for  traveling,  will  secure  the  transfer  of  a  numerous  people  to  new 
homes  on  the  course  of  "  the  star  of  empire  ". 

Not  those  alone  of  undefined  opinions,  and  wanting  position  in  the  home  of 
their  youth,  will  change  their  abode.  Churches  now  weak  are  to  suffer  a  severe 
depletion.  A  Presbyterian  minister  in  western  New  York  writes  me:  "I  am 
almost  discouraged ;  my  most  enterprising  men,  and  the  very  best  families  are  going 
West."  A  letter  received  last  week  from  a  pastor  in  Berkshire  County,  Massachu 
setts,  contains  the  following  passage :  "The  course  of  business  is  such  in  our  coun 
try  as  to  be  steadily  draining  the  very  life-blood  out  of  these  mountain  districts. 
We  are  steadily  losing  ground,  and  I  see  no  practicable  way  of  helping  it.  Almost 
all  of  our  enterprising  youth  of  both  sexes  leave  us  when  they  reach  maturity,  and 
our  best  families  are  emigrating  to  the  West." 

How,  then,  should  such  persons  go  West?  Observation  in  the  West,  and  a 
careful  study  of  the  whole  question,  prompts  this  answer:  In  companies,  with 


REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY  YEARS.  89 


persons  of  congenial,  moral  and  religious  sentiments,  embracing  mechanics,  and 
pecuniary  ability  to  make  the  school  and  the  Church  paramount  and  attractive 
institutions  from  the  outset.  To  name  the  reasons  for  this  opinion  is  enough.  It 
will  contribute  to  the  protection  of  those  emigrating.  In  the  northwest,  there  are 
thousands  of  persons  lost  to  the  Church  by  removal.  They  have  made  a  home  dis 
tant  from  their  denomination,  and  are  seldom  in  church ;  or  they  are  surrounded 
by  denominations  with  whom  they  do  not  choose  to  unite  while  there  is  hope  in 
the  future  of  enjoying  their  own.  "Hope  deferred"  relaxes  exertion;  and  soon 
the  once  fair  and  flourishing  professor  is  seen  relapsing  in  his  principles,  and  with 
perverted  taste,  conformed  to  the  irreligious  habits  of  frontier  life.  Observation 
has  proved  that  those  who  are  strangers,  and  do  not  in  their  new  home  from  the 
first  avow  their  religious  convictions,  may  never  do  it.  Their  excuse  "that  they 
find  nothing  in  the  Church  as  it  used  to  be  at  home,"  may  not  be  valid,  while 
their  removal  from  the  presence  of  congenial  friends,  will  prove  the  shipwreck  of 
their  principles. 

"My  people  are  so  scattered!"  is  the  mournful  expression  of  many  a  home 
missionary;  for  well  they  know  that  a  monthly  hearing  of  the  Word  ordinarily 
fails  to  secure  the  fruits  which  the  pastoral  relation  contemplates.  This  is  the 
condition  of  thousands  of  families,  which  cannot  at  present  be  remedied,  since  a 
change  of  home  is  not  so  easily  made,  and  there  is  a  lack  of  ministers  even  to  sup 
ply  the  organized  churches. 

If  it  be  said  that  the  Christian  should  be  a  light  everywhere,  and  as  leaven 
among  the  ungodly,  the  position  will  not  be  denied;  but  the  facts  are,  the  few 
yield  to  the  many,  and  a  single  Christian  family  or  a  few  poor  families  can  effect 
but  little  in  a  community  where  there  is  a  strong  preorganized  irreligious  senti 
ment.  A  weak  society  may  be  formed  with  the  best  of  principles,  but,  from  its 
pecuniary  dependence,  only  to  be  led  and  perverted  by  designing  men,  to  the  dis 
honor  of  religion,  and,  as  numerous  localities  evidence,  inflicting  a  blow  on  a 
given  denomination,  from  which  it  will  require  years  to  recover. 

The  Bishops  of  Ireland  complain  that  one-half  the  Catholics  emigrating  to 
America  are  lost  to  the  Church ;  and  having  studied  the  causes  of  this  loss,  Rome 
prefers  that  her  adherents  should  dwell  near  to  the  priest  and  the  Church  in  pov 
erty,  rather  than  with  plenty  and  distant  from  the  Church.  Protestants  may 
learn  from  their  enemies  the  methods  in  order  to  preservation  and  power.  A  les 
son  may  be  known  from  towns  in  Vermont,  New  York,  Ohio  and  Illinois,  which 
were  settled  by  a  heterogeneous  people,  distracted  by  numerous  sects,  and  which 
still  lack  that  absorbing  element  of  influence  which  in  towns  adjacent,  settled  by 
congenial  spirits,  has  sustained  schools  and  seminaries,  and  an  able  ministry,  all 
contributing  to  a  still  greater  assimilation. 

Organized  emigration  becomes  a  Christian  duty,  if  a  new  home  is  sought. 
There  is  a  natural  proclivity  to  the  strong  side,  and  a  horror  of  minorities.  Bad 
men  in  new  neighborhoods,  in  the  presence  of  strong  Christian  men,  have  often 
given  up  controversy,  and  from  motives  of  peace  and  policy,  have  placed  them 
selves  within  the  reach  of  the  minister's  voice,  which  has  eventuated  in  their 
conversion. 

In  the  time  of  rebellion,  government  is  respected  according  to  the  number  and 
character  of  forces  sent  to  quell  the  outbreak ;  and  the  force  and  position  of  Chris 
tians  in  the  frontier  States,  determine  their  influence  on  the  all-abounding  errors, 
and  whether  Christ's  triumph  shall  be  early  and  complete,  or  delayed  indefinitely. 
Government  erects  the  light-house  at  such  a  height,  and  with  a  given  number  of 
lamps.  Fitful,  chance  lights  on  the  shore  will  not  suffice  in  the  nights  of  dark 
ness  and  storm ;  no  more  will  single  Christians,  mostly  poor,  and  of  necessity  secu 
lar  in  their  pursuits,  scattered  through  the  West,  effect  that  which  requires  to  be 


90  REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

done  by  a  combination  of  influence.  If  Christians,  then,  would  unite  to  this  end 
"the  solitary  place  shall  be  glad  for  them,"  and  the  report  would  go  out  through 
the  land,  "there  are  the  profits  of  godliness  and  conquests  for  Christ." 

There  are  social  and  material  bearings  of  this  question,  which  deserve  a  brief 
mention.  We  are  made  for  society;  society  is  not  "got  up  to  order,"  like  a  mili 
tary  company  for  an  emergency.  But  persons  with  a  common  aim,  of  the  same 
faith,  and  with  a  free  will,  embarking  together,  will  find  a  variety  of  pleasing  cor 
respondence  in  a  new  home,  where  all  are  called  to  the  same  trials,  and  inspired 
with  kindred  hopes.  We  remember  the  glowing  countenances  of  our  fathers, 
rehearsing  the  story  of  days  when,  with  a  brother's  spirit,  they  laid  the  founda 
tions  which  are  now  justly  their  children's  pride  and  joy.  The  trials  we  need  not 
know  in  full,  borne,  as  we  may  be,  by  steam  to  the  prairies,  long  smiling  with  invi 
tations  for  the  stranger ;  but  enongh  remains  of  toil  and  devotion  to  the  genera 
tions  that  come  after,  to  perpetuate  friendship  through  prospered  years  to  old  age. 
Constructing  a  social  and  religious  habit,  and  not  complaining  over  that  which 
cannot  be  remedied,  is  the  proper  employment,  and  contributes  to  real  affinity,  hap 
piness  and  strength  of  character. 

The  economies  of  this  question  are  evident.  Where  there  are  numbers,  the 
pecuniary  burdens  of  the  Church  and  school  are  divided,  and  every  valued  institu 
tion  rendered  really  more  valuable.  Lands  adjacent  to  the  Christian  colonies  are 
held  in  the  market  at  a  much  higher  price  than  those  in  the  vicinity  of  a  medley 
class  of  people. 

A  number  of  families  in  one  company  may  purchase  merchandise  and  mate 
rials  for  house-building  at  much  lower  rates  than  the  immigrant  alone ;  and  public 
spirit,  in  the  laying-out  of  grounds,  and  in  ornamental  culture,  will  affect,  at  a  lit 
tle  expense,  that  which  individual  enterprise  could  not  achieve. 

Persons  with  a  common  interest,  settled  by  the  stream  of  water,  or  near  a  coal- 
bed,  can,  with  economy,  establish  those  factories  which  every  consideration  of 
political  economy  requires  in  the  West.  The  farmers,  uniting  their  funds,  can 
purchase  patent  reapers  and  mowers,  and  other  great  labor-saving  inventions  of 
this  age,  yet  beyond  the  reach  of  the  isolated  farmers.  Stock  and  wool-growers,  at 
a  small  cost  to  each,  can  sscure  the  best  bloods,  and  such  advantages  from  their 
introduction  as  are  now  only  known  in  a  few  wealthy  localities. 

We  forbear  to  enumerate  advantages  further.  If  it  be  said  that  some  may 
Isave  the  company,  we  answer,  their  vacancy  will  invite  good  rather  than  bad 
men.  If  failures  are  in  memory,  the  answer  is,  not  on  virgin  soil,  in  a  free  state, 
in  this  day  of  railroads. 

J.  B.  G. 

HOW    CAME    THE    LOCATION  ? 

A  slave  state — Missouri  —  I  hinted  at,  as  we  had  an  estate 
there  of  640  acres.  That  cooled  the  ardor  of  correspondents. 
One  wrote  that  he  proposed  to  keep  his  sentiments  but  "  learn  hip 
trade  without  prison  stripes  on  him."  The  decision  not  to  go  to 
Missouri  came  in  this  way :  I  had  made  proposals  for  a  land  pur 
chase  forty  miles  west  of  Hannibal  and  had  friendly  answers,  and 
a  welcome  from  slave  owners,  provided  I  "did  not  meddle  with 
their  property."  I  shook  hands  with  a  gallant  colonel  over  what 
I  now  see  was  a  deep  chasm  as  we  parted ;  for  this  colonel,  after- 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS.  91 

ward  an  M.  C.,  was  soon  found  presiding  at  a  pro-slavery  meeting, 
with  resolves  that  only  people  embracing  sentiments  loyal  to  slav 
ery  were  to  be  tolerated.  That  I  read  on  reaching  New  York,  and 
it  made  my  land  worthless  as  a  home,  and  ended  all  talk  of 
Missouri. 

There  was  then,  in  1853,  no  railway  as  far  west  as  the  Missis 
sippi  River,  and,  leaving  the  stage  going  east,  at  Sheffield,  111.,  for 
the  railway  coach,  I  was  confronted  with  a  brace  of  wordy  slave 
hunters,  or  their  kin,  cursing  the  North  as  made  up  of  cowards 
and  nigger  thieves.  I  kept  silence  until  I  was  challenged  as  to 
my  sentiments,  and  I  then  hinted  I  was  in  a  free  State,  where  the 
law  relating  to  gentlemen  was  observed. 

Threats,  oaths  and  drawn  pistols  were  in  the  order  of  use,  and 
if  a  Yankee  I  was  advised  to  drop  off  at  the  next  station.  I  can 
not  tell  all  that  passed  in  debate,  up  to  the  time  the  conductor  in 
fear  went  forward  to  give  the  alarm  that  a  passenger's  life  was 
threatened.  A  venerable,  fine-looking  gentleman  came  in,  who 
proved  to  be  the  builder  of  the  Eock  Island  road,  Henry  Farnam, 
the  late  deceased  philanthropist  and  millionaire  of  New  Haven, 
Conn.  He  was  shocked  at  the  gross  profanity,  and  alarmed  for 
my  safety  in  presence  of  desperadoes  armed  in  defiance ;  yet  they 
left  the  train  at  La  Salle,  fearful  of  arrest,  which  Mr.  Farnam 
had  ordered  by  wire. 

This  meeting  began  a  warm  friendship,  with  compliments 
received  on  "  standing  my  ground ",  and  with  advice  not  to  think 
of  settling  in  Missouri,  where  you  would  not  be  allowed  to  live  a 
month.  "  Go  to  Iowa,"  said  he,  "  a  free  State,  which  I  have  just 
come  from;  and  I  am  to  build  a  railway  across  to  the  Missouri 
River,  an  extension  of  the  Kock  Island  Road." 

I  answered,  "I  do  not  know  a  man  in  that  State,  nor  have  I  an 
idea  where  to  go." 

"But  you  know  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon;  his  son,  just  out  of  col 
lege,  is  one  of  my  Iowa  engineers,  and  he  can  and  will,  under  my 
direction,  tell  you  all  you  want  to  know." 

I  accepted  his  kind  offer,  which  was  that  I  should  have  infor 
mation  as  to  the  preliminary  survey  of  the  country,  with  only  a 
request  that  I  would  keep  the  facts  from  the  public. 

Thereupon  Bacon  wrote  fully  in  several  letters,  and  with  the 
clear  opinion,  summed  up  after  reaching  Council  Bluffs,  that  in  the 
western  part  the  land  was  too  rolling,  and  in  the  eastern  portion 


92  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

the  best  lands  were  taken  up.  Town  eighty,  Range  sixteen  west, 
near  Lattimer's  Grove,  offered  the  best  choice  of  all  —  a  well 
watered  prairie ;  and  the  topography  of  the  country,  in  opinion  of 
the  engineers,  indicated  the  line  of  a  north  and  south  road,  if  there 
should  ever  be  one,  and  a  Junction  station  at  section  sixteen,  on  a 
natural  grade  between  the  Iowa  and  Des  Moines  Rivers.  He 
added,  "Lose  no  time,  for  there  will  be  a  rush  for  land  and  the 
best  will  be  taken  —  the  boys  mean  to  take  it  up." 

Here  I  would  not  suppress  the  names  of  Mr.  P.  A.  Dey,  for 
years  our  State  Railway  Commissioner,  and  Gen.  G.  M.  Dodge, 
financier,  and  since  Major-General  and  a  great  character  in  our 
Civil  War,  who  were  Mr.  Farnam's  locating  engineers ;  and  their 
judgment  I  gained  indirectly  through  Mr.  Bacon,  whose  independ 
ence,  with  lack  of  caution,  came  near  costing  the  ambitious  youth 
his  life. 

A    PIONEER    INCIDENT. 

It  was  in  this  way :  Bacon  thought  that  on  the  vast,  untracked 
prairie  he  could  shorten  his  way  to  the  camp,  one  bitter  cold 
night,  and  became  lost  on  his  return.  The  whole  engineering 
force  went  out  on  a  hunt  for  the  young  flagman.  At  break  of  day 
an  object  was  seen  just  moving,  which  proved  to  be  Bacon,  hob 
bling  with  a  cane,  numb  and  frozen,  who,  when  hearing  a  distant 
call,  fell  as  if  dead.  That  episode  came  near  ending  his  life ;  and 
Dr.  Bacon,  glad  of  the  rescue  of  his  son,  said  to  me  afterward,  "I 
feared  for  him,  a  frail,  college  boy,  just  what  happened,  a  narrow 
escape."  A  letter  from  the  boy  was  brought  out  and  read  with 
deep  emotion — I  recall  the  first  laconic  sentences,  Dr.  Bacon 
reading :  "  Dear  Father :  I  have  seen  the  elephant  with  the  kiver 
off."  Then  followed  a  recital  as  to  the  night  tramp,  frozen  feet, 
etc.  Mr.  Bacon  closed  his  engineering  and  married  a  daughter  of 
Gov.  Selden  of  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  where  he  is  in  the  practice  of  the 
legal  profession.  I  have  seen  him  but  once  since  then,  when  we 
met  as  delegates  at  the  National  Liberal  Convention  in  1872. 

One  Monday,  after  receiving  the  final  letter  urging  haste,  I  set 
out  for  Iowa  and  collected  at  Chicago  a  few  friends  of  my  enter 
prise,  spending  Sunday  in  Davenport,  speaking  in  church,  and  the 
next  day  taking  a  private  hack  for  Sugar  Grove,  one  hundred  and 
twenty  miles  west,  thus  beginning  the  first  novel  trip  of  discovery. 


EEMINISCENCES   OF  FOETT   YEARS.  93 

I  studied  to  seek  information  by  questions  on  the  way :  "  Well,  my 
friend,"  said  I,  "  where  do  you  live,  may  a  stranger  ask  ?  "  Leis 
urely  he  drawled  out  —  "Live  nowhere  —  I  am  like  a  stray  dog, 
without  a  home  or  a  master." 

Many  times  I  have  thought  it  a  most  original  picture  of  a 
tramp  of  later  days. 

"  Please,  sir,  where  can  we  stop  to-night  ?  "  I  was  answered, 
"At  Sourwines  I  allow,  or  Danskin's  I  reckon.  Young  Sickafoose, 
mighty  clever  —  or  old  Frizzle  will  set  out  the  whiskey ! "  That 
was  border  talk.  Such  a  string  of  .names  wanting  in  euphony,  I 
do  not  since  recall ;  they  were  real  and  I  never  heard  of  a  court 
application  for  a  change. 

Lattimer's  Grove  was  reached  across  a  twenty-mile  prairie 
where  there  was  only  one  house.  We  took  dinner  and  set  out  for 
the  flag,  four  miles  away,  at  the  railway  summit,  beautiful  in 
topography.  The  black,  burnt  grass  and  chill  March  wind,  with 
not  a  stone  or  shrub  near,  were  devoid  of  attraction.  I  just  dis 
cerned  the  tops  of  trees  north  four  miles,  which  the  engineer  said 
was  only  brush. 

Then  to  find  shelter  for  the  night  we  struck  for  Evan's  Grove, 
spoken  of  as  distant  four  miles,  where  there  was  said  to  be  a 
cabin. 

Gulches  were  encountered;  a  few  stars  were  studied  to  guide 
us ;  we  were  several  times  lost,  and  only  late  at  night  we  heard  a 
dog  bark,  which  proved  to  be  a  watchful  canine  resisting  our 
entrance  to  the  cabin.  The  engineer  made  a  plea  to  stop  over 
night,  and  the  shout  was,  "No !  No  ! " 

Dr.  Holyoke  tried  his  hand  and  retreated  under  flashing  eyes. 
Mr.  Hamlin,  really  sick,  tried  if  he  might  move  to  pity.  "No 
room — man  gone  —  girl  frightened  —  nothing  to  eat." 

It  was  dark,  cold,  and,  being  the  author  of  our  calamity,  I  said, 
"  We  would  stay  if  we  had  to  kill  the  dog ;  and  if  the  woman  had 
fits,  the  doctor  could  bring  her  out."  I  went  in  and  boldly  took  a 
seat,  asking  no  place  to  sleep  or  anything  to  eat,  but  saying  we 
must  stay  or  freeze ;  if  you  take  us  to  be  robbers  or  thieves,  take 
this  purse  of  gold  from  gentlemen."  It  meant  a  pledge  to  pay  in 
advance.  I  saw  relenting  —  a  glance  of  pity,  and  heard  a  low 
whisper  in  the  corner,  "  They  don't  look  bad,"  and  the  woman  said 
with  some  doubt,  "You  can  stay." 

The  next  day  as  the  season  was  late  and  cold,  the  party  was 


94  REMINISCENCES    OF  FOETY   YEAB8. 

discouraged  from  going  much,  further ;  but  I  resolved  to  see  and 
know  for  myself.  By  a  fortunate  persistence  I  found  the  novelty 
of  an  Indian  wigwam,  just  vacated,  in  view  of  a  group  of  deer  rest 
ing  on  the  hill-sides,  and  acres  of  majestic  oaks,  bordering  on  Bear 
Creek,  several  miles  north  of  our  present  city.  This,  the  first 
entry  of  land  which  I  made,  was  of  great  value,  and  became  a  part 
of  a  gift  of  two  hundred  acres  to  my  children  many  years  later. 

THE    HOUR    OF    DECISION. 

In  the  morning  there  was  a  council  near  the  red  railway 
flag  on  the  summit  of  the  road,  and  agreement  as  to  a  location 
was  found  impossible.  These  were  the  objections.  This  summit 
embraces  the  school  section,  which  we  cannot  buy ;  there  is  a  want 
of  timber;  and,  in  the  view  of  Dr.  Holyoke  from  Maine,  Iowa 
County  offered  a  location  near  the  Iowa  Elver  with  timber  and  the 
possibility  of  a  county-seat.  Mr.  Hamlin  pictured  Des  Moines  as 
the  possible  future  capital  and  place  for  profitable  investment,  and 
plead  to  wait.  My  mind  was  made  up  as  to  the  value  of  this  loca 
tion,  and  I  said  I  thought  little  of  county-seats,  and  had  no  taste  for 
city-lot  speculation.  Being  the  driver,  I  said,  "Who  goes  East?" 
They  remained  reluctantly,  and  I  struck  for  the  Land  Office  at 
Iowa  City,  sixty-five  miles  away,  which  I  reached  at  sunset.  The 
Land  Office  officials  were  hunted  up,  and  I  closed  save  as  to  details 
the  entry  of  some  five  thousand  acres  of  land  before  Sunday,  sug 
gesting  to  the  receiver,  Mr.  Gilman  Folsom,  that  I  had  engaged  to 
preach  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  morning  and  asked  to  be 
excused  as  Sunday  was  near.  Mr.  Folsom  responded  with  an  oath, 
"I  have  not  been  to  church  for  years,  but  you  will  find  me  in  the 
Amen  corner  if  you  are  to  preach."  True  to  his  word,  he  was  pres 
ent  and  created  a  sensation  by  a  stride  down  the  church  aisle, 
with  a  wild  air  and  unkempt  locks,  to  annoy  the  speaker  not  a  lit 
tle,  by  a  conspicuous  nodding  of  assent  during  the  sermon.  This 
episode  and  the  merriment  created  were  apologized  for  by  Chief 
Justice  George  Green  at  the  Hotel,  who  said  that  Folsom  was 
esteemed  a  man  of  great  brilliancy,  but  convivial  habits  might  be 
his  ruin. 

Thus  we  were  never  a  Colony  but  in  name.  I  made  the  land 
entries  in  my  own  name  and  took  the  risks,  yet  on  return  treated 
those  I  wanted  and  had  invited  with  equity.  Some,  later,  bought 
land  in  their  own  name.  I  asked  of  the  late  arrivals,  on  the 


MR.    GRINNELT/S   PIONEER   LOG   CABIN   HOME. 

(From  an  old 


REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY   TEARS.  95 

transfer  of  land  at  cost,  a  pledge  of  money  for  our  Literary  Treas 
ury.  In  my  plan  for  taking  up  some  20,000  acres  I  was  thwarted 
by  my  New  York  agent,  who  failed  to  purchase  the  Virginia  land 
scrip,  because  it  had  gone  up  a  few  cents  an  acre  after  I  left ;  he 
most  stupidly  wrote  to  me  to  know  if  "he  should  fill  the  order". 
It  was  then  too  late  for  the  purpose,  as  on  my  location  the  land 
contiguous  was  at  once  taken  up,  and  the  great  scheme  was 
frustrated. 

Mr.  Farnum,  of  whom  I  have  spoken,  pleased  with  my  choice, 
gave  me  courage  by  railway  passes,  and  said  he  should  counsel  his 
sister  and  the  Parks  family  of  New  York  to  be  my  neighbors,  as 
they  soon  were.  I  received  a  complimentary  check  from  him  of  a 
few  hundred  dollars  three  years  after,  when  dollars  covered  the 
orb  of  a  cart  wheel,  for  attending  and  speaking  on  his  behalf  at  a 
railroad  meeting  at  Oskaloosa.  I  also  was  by  him  made  a 
Director  in  his  Iowa  extension  of  the  Eock  Island  Eailroad,  which 
office  I  held  for  several  years.  On  our  memorable  tornado  calam 
ity  he  sent  a  large  sum  of  money  to  the  poor,  and  gave  a  thousand 
dollars  toward  our  new  college  buildings. 

When  new  surveys  and  intrigue  threatened  to  change  the  line 
of  the  railway,  he  stood  by  me  personally  in  words  too  compli 
mentary  for  repetition,  but  not  in  too  high  praise  of  the  people. 
Indeed,  he  was  more  than  an  incident  in  my  unmerited  good  for 
tune,  which  I  should  be  ungrateful  not  to  acknowledge.  His  liber 
ality  in  New  Haven  gives  him  great  material  fame.  Personal 
favors  will  leave  forever  with  me  the  impressions  of  a  generous, 
noble  gentleman,  a  wit,  a  Christian,  the  charm  of  any  circle  fortu 
nate  in  his  company.  A.  most  entertaining  memoir  has  been  writ 
ten  by  his  son,  Professor  Farnum  of  Yale  College. 

The  critical  epoch  in  our  affairs  was  on  my  return  from  New 
York,  in  May.  The  new  cabin  was  built,  but  I  was  strongly 
tempted  by  a  large  offer  to  part  with  the  land;  my  throat  was 
improved,  the  hoarseness  lessened.  New  York  friends  had  pro 
posed  with  my  aid  to  start  a  new  Congregational  Church  by  a 
removal  to  the  fashionable  Murray  Hill.  I  have  had  good  fortune 
in  Iowa;  New  York  is  a  possible  maelstrom. 

A    LEGAL    DISCOVERY. 

George  H.  Norris  of  Illinois  had  bought  the  most  desirable 
land,  where  West  Grinnell  now  stands;  and  there  was  but  one 


96  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

opinion,  that  the  school  section,  sixteen,  could  only  be  had  at  a 
regular  sale  and  advertised ;  such  was  the  judgment  of  Mr.  Barnes, 
School  Fund  Commissioner.  On  a  rainy  day,  looking  up  law 
points,  I  found  a  statute  which  allowed  pre-emption  of  school  land 
as  under  the  old  territorial  law.  The  discovery  I  kept  to  myself 
until  we  could,  by  the  letter  of  the  law,  begin  as  pre-emptors  on 
the  four  quarter  sections,  and  ask  for  an  appraisal.  Thereupon 
we  crossed  some  poles  and  laid  down  a  few  boards  for  a  camp  on  a 
chilly  night,  H.  Hamlin  on  one,  H.  M.  Hamilton  and  Dr.  Holyoke 
on  the  others,  and  I  by  right  of  discovery  slept  on  the  north-west 
quarter,  where  nature  had  predetermined  the  railway  station, 
there  being  a  steep  grade  either  way  for  miles. 

Armed  with  affidavits  according  to  law,  Mr.  Hamilton  and 
myself  found  Mr.  Barnes,  the  School  Officer,  who  was  surprised  to 
read  the  law,  but,  long  hesitating,  made  out  an  order  for  an 
appraisal ;  and,  on  the  return  of  Squire  Pierce,  we  gained  the  land 
for  less  than  $2.00  an  acre,  for  which  as  a  town  site  I  could  have 
taken  from  a  land  syndicate  many  thousand  dollars.  Then  came 
the  new  Plot,  and  my  clear  gift  to  the  proposed  university,  after 
expenses  of  all  kinds,  as  will  be  found  in  the  recorded  Genesis  of 
our  city  —  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  divided  into  three  hun 
dred  and  forty-eight  lots  (not  including  the  park)  dedicated  to  the 
public.  Next  come  the  details  of  settlement. 


CHAPTEE  VII. 

Prohibition  of  Saloons — Pioneering  Incidents — Rattlesnake  Ser 
mon —  Our  Mail  Service — First  Law  Suit —  The  Long  Home — 
Foibles  of  an  Enthusiast — First  Fourth  of  July — First  Ceme 
tery  Burial  —  A  Bell  on  the  Prairie — The  Church. 

THAT  the  writer  was  an  enthusiast,  devoid  of  worldly-wise  phi 
losophy,  was  a  common  saying.  He  certainly  did  not  choose  the 
wisdom  of  returning  to  New  York  with  great  profits  as  a  shrewd 
speculator. 

•It  must  be  a  confirmed  fanatic,  they  said,  that  made,  on  sale  of 
lots,  a  proviso  against  a  saloon,  namely,  a  reversion  of  the  land  to 
the  maker  of  the  deed,  by  the  sale  of  strong  drinks  on  a  lot.  The 
taunt  was  common,  "You  have  laid  out  a  one-horse  town,  but  I 
will  give  three  prices  without  the  whisky  proviso."  Then  judges, 
called  very  wise,  caviled  that  "  inhibition  will  not  stand  in  law ". 
I  was  immovable  and  confident  that  I  had  a  right  to  make  a  sale 
with  conditions  not  opposed  to  public  policy  and  morals.  Then  a 
gift,  virtually  to  trustees  of  education,  made  a  stronger  case.  The 
sequel  is  well  known.  The  supreme  court  of  the  United  States 
decided  a  case  arising  in  Greeley,  Colorado,  which  made  my  heresy 
sound  in  morals  and  finance  —  even  good  law. 

It  was  the  knowledge  of  a  young  city  without  a  saloon,  which 
attracted  eminently  a  class  who  are  the  best  elements  of  society. 
They  enhanced  the  value  of  property,  while  holding  up  more  than 
a  rush-light  in  darkness,  where,  in  all  the  region,  whiskey  was 
plenty  at  twenty  cents  a  gallon.  We  were  a  target  for  the  sharp 
practice  of  a  brood  of  revilers,  up  to  the  year  of  demonstration 
that  we  were  not  a  "one  horse  city'7,  but  could  support  a  college, 
and  lead  the  way  for  a  decisive  prohibition  majority  in  framing  a 
state  policy.  Our  radical  plumes  were  honestly  won,  and  are  now 
proudly  worn  as  the  trophies  of  pioneers  with  conviction  and 


98  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

THE    CABIN. 

Look  at  that  shanty.  It  provokes  a  "twice-told  tale".  Profes 
sional,  educated  gentlemen  asleep  on  poles,  covered  with  slats  and 
straw  ticks.  A  Nimrod  bringing  game,  and  the  merchant  a  cook, 
as  well  as  retailer  of  goods  for  the  grove  men.  Food  was  never 
better  relished,  nor  repose  sweeter.  We  lived  in  anticipation  of 
spring,  the  singing  of  birds,  and  removal  to  the  prairie  summit, 
where,  without  the  fame  of  Romulus,  or  modern  founders,  we  were 
to  have  home,  city,  school,  church,  and  all  accessible  good  with 
very  little  ready  whiskey. 

The  house  of  Perry  Matteson,  Esq.,  near  the  grove  where  he 
now  resides,  was  the  rendezvous  of  the  pioneer  party  until  the 
erection  of  the  first  house-shelter,  which  was  located  in  the  grove 
near  Sugar  Creek.  This  deserves  to  be  particularly  noticed  —  an 
artist  and  an  engineer,  Mr.  C.  W.  Irish,  of  Iowa  City,  having 
drawn  it  in  correct  outline,  which  is  still  preserved,  as  the  home  of 
the  real  spirits  of  an  embryo  town,  preparatory  to  their  removal*  to 
the  noted  house  on  the  prairie  called  the  "long  home",  which  will 
be  hereafter  noticed. 

This  first  cabin  was  built  of  dead  logs  which  Hamlin  chopped, 
Hamilton  drew  with  oxen,  and  Dr.  Holyoke  as  chief  architect 
hewed  into  place ;  Griswold  drawing  the  lumber  for  covering  from 
a  water-mill  east  of  the  present  Brooklyn,  of  this  count}7".  Its 
dimensions  were  about  fourteen  by  sixteen  feet,  and  it  served  as 
cook-room,  dining-room,  land-office,  hotel  and  sleeping-room  for  ten 
or  twelve  persons,  the  bed  frames  supported  in  tiers  by  pins,  which 
were  driven  into  the  logs  and  covered-  by  painfully  gaunt  straw 
beds.  Amos  Bixby,  Esq.,  and  Surnner  Bixby,  from  Maine,  Henry 
Lawrence,  from  Milan,  Ohio,  and  A.  F.  Gillett,  late  of  Western 
Reserve  College,  were  soon  added  to  the  company.  The  next 
necessity  was  lumber,  and  a  horse  saw-mill  was  secured,  which  was 
set  near  by,  on  the  land  now  owned  by  Mr.  Marvin.  This  rude 
mill  sawed  out  near  100,000  feet  of  lumber,  owned  by  Mr.  McDan- 
iels.  I  was  at  this  time  acting  commissary,  and  at  Burlington, 
Iowa,  bought  the  first  bill  of  goods  ever  brought  to  the  town,  of 
Hon.  W.  F.  Colbaugh,  later  President  of  the  Union  National  Bank 
of  Chicago,  having  been  introduced  by  Geo.  F.  Magoun,  late  Presi 
dent  of  Iowa  College.  The  full  and  heavy  load  was  wagoned  home 
by  the  purchaser  and  welcomed  with  a  shout.  It  consisted  of 


REMINISCENCES    OF  FOETT   YEARS.  99 

sugar,  coffee,  saleratus,  crackers,  cheese  and  a  choice  assortment  of 
fruits  and  delicacies.  The  truth  of  history  requires  the  admission 
that  several  kinds  of  tobacco  figured  conspicuously,  which  the 
natives  in  seeming  agony  often  inquired  for,  and  the  thought  was 
indulged  that  the  previous  settlers  in  the  ( timber',  known  as 
Hoosiers,  might  be  innocently  propitiated,  they  being  quite  suspi 
cious  of  the  Yankees. 

A  store-room  was  extemporized  with  rough  boards  under  the 
eaves  of  the  cabin,  and  Lawrence,  who  was  a  graduated  merchant, 
took  charge.  Hungry  swine,  cattle  and  roving  dogs  were  an 
annoyance,  frequently  unroofing  the  store  in  attempts  at  appeasing 
their  hunger ;  but  Lawrence  would  give  them  credit,  voracious  as 
they  were,  for  never  disturbing  even  a  paper  or  plug  of  tobacco. 

The  horse  saw-mill  in  place,  with  a  buzz  and  ring,  was  sweeter 
than  parlor  music;  violets  peeped  out  gaudily  under  the  leaves; 
and  whip-poor-wils  and  all  the  grove  songsters  allured  us  to  tarry ; 
but  we  were  for  the  "Unshorn  Garden".  What  a  doleful  pros 
pect  !  —  to  be  smitten  by  the  sun  in  the  day,  and  swept  by  gales  in 
the  winter,  which  none  of  us,  tender  feet,  had  endured.  Would  it 
close  out  the  Yankee  settlement  ?  Let  us  see.  Food  we  had,  and 
the  next  want  was  shelter ;  and  this  was 

THE    LONG    HOME. 

This  edifice  was  not  honored  by  a  picture,  not  even  the  product 
of  an  architect ;  but  it  shall  have  a  chronicler.  It  was  called  the 
longhouse,  hulk,  ark,  prairie  canal-boat,  Grinnell's  Tavern.  It 
stood  in  what  is  now  Broad  Street,  between  the  residence  of  D.  O. 
Harris  and  that  of  Professor  Edson.  In  dimensions  it  was  sixteen 
feet  wide  and  eighty  long.  It  was  constructed  of  green  lumber, 
sawed  by  horse-power,  the  boards  bent  with  a  supposable  curve  to 
shed  the  rain ;  yet  it  was  only  an  illusion  of  protection  in  driving 
storms.  This  was  a  rude  necessity,  for  there  was  no  house  or 
shelter  within  three  miles,  and  eastern  women  and  children  were 
not  used  to  the  " prairie  schooners"  (only  canvas-covered  wagons) 
suited  to  the  necessities  of  adventurous  land-hunters.  » 

In  it  were  stored  household  goods,  and  temporary  beds  were 
made  for  the  night.  It  soon  became  a  land  office,  hotel,  hospital, 
and  council-room  for  rainy  days  and  Sunday  meetings.  In  it  the 
Land  hunter,  the  traveler,  the  sportsman  and  families  had  a  wel- 


100  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS. 

come  according  to  pre-empting  right  and  free  occupation.  It  was  a 
fine  summer  resort  for  the  occasion,  when  in  the  corners  of  the 
building  we  made  the  men  with  their  wives  privileged  occupants, 
curtained  off,  and  the  sleepers  for  the  night  were  arranged,  their 
feet  nearly  touching,  with  a  narrow  alley  between,  on  either  side 
of  which  could  be  counted  as  high  as  forty  persons  in  calm  repose 
with  all  the  musical  variations  of  a  sonorous  company.  The  hot 
sun  soon  warped  the  roof  and  shrunk  the  green  lumber,  so  that 
the  rains  dripped  freely  and  the  autumn  winds  whistled  through 
the  sides.  One  by  one  people  vacated  it,  till  it  was  left  as  a  black 
smith  shop  at  one  end  and  a  horse  stable  at  the  other,  the  rest  free 
for  occupation  by  those  who  had  no  home  elsewhere.  It  was  the 
witness  of  good  preaching,  sweet  singing,  devout  prayer,  and  the 
most  social  convocations  of  well-bred  people,  who  deemed  them 
selves  "out  of  sight  of  land "•  —  land  everywhere  without  an 
inhabitant.  This  was  my  first  building  and  I  remember  the  mice 
peeping  through  the  cracks  in  the  floor  (a  diversion  to  youngsters 
Sunday),  and  that  good  appetite,  with  the  clatter  of  dishes  and  the 
music  of  knives  and  forks,  was  followed  by  sound  digestion.  The 
vacating  of  the  building  was  like  a  departure  from  an  old  home. 
Then  a  store  was  improvised  of  green  lumber,  sixteen  by  twenty- 
four  feet,  for  Mr.  Anor  Scott,  the  first  merchant,  with  a  room 
above  for  lodgers.  The  display  below  of  goods  was  equal  to  the 
occasion.  There  we  held  meetings  on  Sundays. 

Then  occurred  the  rattlesnake  episode.  The  building  was 
boarded  tight  to  the  ground  to  prevent  a  hiding-place  for  vermin, 
sequestered  retreats  for  dogs  and  resort  for  snakes.  One  Sunday 
morning  the  earliest  visitor  was  a  large,  yellow  rattlesnake,  dis 
covered  coiled  in  front  of  the  door,  from  which  one  of  the  ladies 
ran  in  terror.  I  happened  to  be  near,  and,  having  a  taste  for  a 
safe  study  of  natural  history,  prevented  the  dispatch  of  the  snake 
and  teased  it  with  a  stick  at  a  safe  distance.  The  first  thing  I 
learned  was  that  it  was  blind,  it  being  August ;  that,  as  I  found  on 
later  study,  was  the  normal  condition  of  the  reptile  at  that  season. 
On  being  touched,  it  would  make  an  unmusical  buzz  with  its  seven 
rattles  and  strike  out  half  its  length.  On  further  provocation  it 
would  bite  itself,  and  quickly  be  swollen  where  the  fangs  had 
entered.  The  bystanders  incurred  little  danger  because  the  reptile 
could  not  see  its  tormentors.  So  we  studied  the  buzzing  reptile 
until  the  last  church  bell  rang,  and  one  of  the  travelers  remarked 


EEMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY  YEARS.  101 

they  had  come  to  hear  a  sermon  and  not  to  a  snake-killing,  and 
dispatched  him,  leaving  in  sight  his  extremity  still  waving  and 
buzzing,  perhaps  until  after  sundown,  as  tradition  says.  His 
snakeship  having  been  a  revelation  to  many  as  well  as  a  terror,  I 
was  moved,  as  the  most  conspicuous  actor,  to  improve  the  occasion 
in  the  sermon. 

The  following  report,  with  sundry  variations,  found  its  way 
into  the  newspapers.  The  text  was,  "  Now  the  serpent  was  more 
subtle  than  any  beast  of  the  field."  The  points  made  were :  The 
first  appearance  of  Satan  in  the  form  of  a  serpent,  not  keeping  his 
place  in  the  jungle,  but  confronting  the  woman  as  her  tempter. 
This  one  confronted  us  in  the  sunlight  on  a  Sunday  morning. 
This  one  was  blinded,  and  poisoned  by  his  own  virus.  He 
attacked  himself  when  he  could  harm  no  one  else.  That  is  the 
Satan  of  old  and  of  to-day.  The  instinct  of  destruction  to  our  foe 
survives  the  fall ;  it  was  meted  out  to  Satan,  his  prototype.  Learn 
of  the  reptile  to  be  warned  of  a  more  insidious  enemy.  Beware 
of  < snakes  in  boots',  for  the  devil  strikes  before,  not  after  an 
alarm  rattle.  He  charms  the  bird  that  becomes  his  prey.  It  has 
a  siren  song  that  it  is  death  to  hear.  Resisted,  Satan  retreats, 
and,  with  the  venom  of  Milton's  archangel,  poisons  and  lacerates 
himself  to  be  fitted  for  the  accomplished  fiends'  abode.  Your 
whiskey  may  be  an  antidote  to  the  reptile's  bite,  but  it  is  evil 
destroying  itself  in  another  form.  Only  grace  can  avail  to  destroy 
the  virus  which  sin  injects  by  the  fang  of  the  great  destroyer. 

OUR    MAIL    SERVICE. 

We  begin  to  make  history  under  the  unlucky  star  of  Franklin 
Pierce,  a  Democratic  administration.  Why  should  abolitionists 
have  a  post-office  ?  Not  one  of  our  number  had  principles  on  the 
market,  and  an  imported  partisan  became  our  servant  under  the 
law  of  demand  and  supply.  I  had  obtained  a  legal  mail  route,  but 
that  was  only  a  myth  without  stage  service,  which  was  only 
secured  after  a  gift  of  lots  was  made  to  the  not  over-virtuous  com 
pany  stage-agent,  embracing  a  plat  of  ground  on  which  is  built  Mr. 
Christian's  residence,  and  that  of  Mr.  Rawson. 

For  months  we  were  four  miles  from  Sugar  Grove  post-office, 
a  most  irritating  neglect  and  partisan  punishment,  yet  it  was  a 
test  of  loyalty  and  decisive  principles  that,  years  after,  a  posted 


102  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

speaker  not  only  failed  to  have  a  partisan  meeting,  but  reported 
that  for  his  evening  diversion  he  could  not  here  find  Democrats 
enough  to  play  a  game  of  euchre. 

Mail  arrivals  and  departures  were  regulated  by  uncertain 
chance  and  public  charity.  Capacious  pockets  were  at  first  used, 
then  handkerchiefs,  and  when  government  allowed  a  locked  mail 
sack  it  was  regarded  as  special  lenity  to  a  people  not  loyal  to 
slavery.  The  safety  of  money  in  letters  by  mail  was  about  equal 
to  the  certainties  of  law  or  medicine,  and  on  one  occasion  a  large 
draft  came  near  being  a  loss  to  the  mail  carrier.  John  B.  Wood 
ward,  as  post-rider  for  the  day,  on  opening  his  private  mail,  found 
a  large  remittance,  and  on  the  way  it  was  with  other  packages 
jostled  from  his  pocket,  but  the  loss  was  undiscovered  until  he 
reached  home.  Mortified  by  his  carelessness,  and  returning  in 
haste,  he  espied  the  swine  in  the  grove  tearing  to  pieces  sundry 
newspapers,  or  with  mouthfuls  softening  their  nests,  and,  continu 
ing  his  search  for  the  valuable  letter,  at  last  found  it  in  the  jaws 
of  a  fleet  and  maternal  porker,  which  he  managed  to  run  down  and 
force  to  drop  the  prize,  bringing  it  back  exultingly,  in  a  mutilated 
but  negotiable  condition  —  on  which  he  was  advised  to  explain  in 
writing  to  the  bank :  "  Snatched  by  an  Abolitionist  from  the  swine 
on  account  of  this  paternal  pro-slavery  government  not  giving  us  a 
Post  Office." 

But  there  was  a  welcome  mail  with  the  first  stage,  bringing 
Captain  Clark's  family;  and  a  cheer  went  up  from  a  corner 
crowd. 

A  LAW  SUIT. 

To  the  honor  of  the  first  settlers,  I  can  recall  no  suit  where 
they  were  personally  litigants.  How  much  time  and  money  was 
saved !  What  an  exemption  from  bitterness,  cold-blooded  social 
strategies,  and  flippant  perjuries  in  mockery  of  oaths !  This  did 
not  come  by  chance,  for  there  was  a  verbal  compact  that  we  would 
not  promote  a  lawsuit.  We  avoided  the  scandal,  among  them 
selves,  but  " offences  came".  Agents  and  stage  drivers  took  more 
than  a  passing  interest  in  the  political  contests  of  the  day ;  and  it 
was  then  deemed  safe  to  trample  on  the  rights  of  citizens.  It  did 
not  so  prove  in  the  case  of  Amos  Bixby,  Esq.  The  stage  drivers 
thought  it  a  better  road  to  cross  his  fenced  field,  about  where  Dr. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  103 

Cravatli  now  lives,  than  to  pass  the  road  by  Rev.  Mr.  Rouse's  land, 
now  Rev.  Mr.  Brainard's  farm;  besides,  they  could  make  a  shorter 
distance  by  the  hypothenuse.  Bixby  protested  and  forbid,  but  the 
drivers  reviled,  showed  their  guns  with  warlike  demonstration; 
and  the  exasperated  owner,  seeing  his  wheat  destroyed  by  cattle, 
presented  himself  at  the  fence,  which  was  thrown  down  as  usual, 
and  while  the  stage  was  passing  through,  Bixby  drew  his  rifle, 
which  sent  a  bullet  to  the  heart  of  one  of  the  lead  horses,  so  far 
worn  out  that  his  sudden  "  taking  off "  was  not  a  great  pecuniary 
loss.  A  fresh  horse  was  secured,  but  the  fence  and  the  field  there 
after  were  left  inviolate.  What  should  be  done?  The  great 
United  States  mail  had  been  stopped,  a  horse  had  been  shot ;  and, 
inspired  by  a  prejudice  and  accompanying  whiskey,  it  was  not 
hard  to  stir  up  indignation  against  the  abolitionists.  No  such 
wanton  act  had  been  perpetrated,  it  was  said,  in  the  history  of  the 
state,  and  the  stage  company,  and  its  friends,  promised  the 
offender  a  prison  and  the  extreme  penalty  of  the  law. 

The  day  for  the  trial  came,  and  Bixby  waved  all  proof  as  to 
the  identity  of  the  one  who  shot.  The  trial  was  a  most  exciting 
one;  E.  W.  Eastman,  of  Eldora,  since  Lieutenant-Governor,  was 
defendant's  council.  But  few  witnesses  were  examined,  yet  a  vast 
amount  of  law  and  precedents  were  read  to  the  jury  by  the  prose 
cution.  Bixby  rose,  and  with  earnest,  thrilling  speech,  said: 
"  Gentlemen  of  the  jury :  I  am  the  guilty  man,  if  there  is  one,  I 
did  the  shooting ;  and  what  would  you  farmers  have  done  ?  I  am 
one  of  you;  my  growing  wheat  was  the  bread  for  my  family, 
which  the  cattle  let  in  were  destroying.  Had  I  not  a  right  to  my 
own  land  and  crops  which  my  own  hard  labor  had  fenced  ?  Then, 
gentlemen,  the  ruffians,  on  my  own  soil,  raised  a  stake  to  strike  me 
down  and  pointed  a  gun  at  me  in  a  threat ;  was  I  to  endure  this  ? 
No ;  I  had  no  enmity  toward  the  driver  and  would  not  harm  him, 
and  I  chose  the  most  effective  plan  of  reaching  the  company  to 
turn  back  the  trespassers,  by  dropping  an  old  horse  about  ready  to 
die.  My  crop  was  saved  by  the  best  method  of  defense  within  my 
reach.  I  followed  my  convictions  of  right,  and  am  ready  to  suffer 
if  guilty  of  any  wrong.  Gentlemen,  you,  with  the  spirit  of  men, 
would  have  defended  your  property.  I  had  no  other  certain  rem 
edy —  I  would  do  so  again,  and  now  am  not  afraid  of  your  ver 
dict."  Judge  Stone,  since  Governor,  gave  a  favorable  charge, 
asserting  that  the  right  to  defend  property,  without  malice,  was 


104  EEM1NISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEAES. 

unquestioned;  did  this  act  in  an  emergency  constitute  a  crime? 
Did  not  the  trespass  of  the  company  invite  violence  ? 

The  jury  at  once  gave  a  verdict  of  not  guilty,  and  the  court 
house  rang  with  cheers  while  the  prisoner  was  overwhelmed  with 
congratulations.  Thus  ended  an  exciting  trial,  the  first  and  the 
last  of  note  in  which  the  old  settlers  have  had  a  part.  Mr.  Bixby 
and  family,  to  the  regret  of  all,  settled  several  years  since  in  Colo 
rado,  where  he  is  an  esteemed  citizen. 

FOIBLES    OF    AN    ENTHUSIAST. 

It  is  pleasant  to  recount  what  may  be  deemed  extravagancies, 
in  the  broad  plans  for  the  founding  of  a  model  social  fabric.  It 
was  a  conviction  that  not  only  tree-planting  for  shelter  and  beauty 
should  engage  the  pioneer,  but  that  fruit  should  be  sought  at  an 
early  day,  as  it  had  been  proven  that  apples  of  a  rare  quality  could 
be  grown  on  the  Iowa  prairies.  Fruit  trees  we  would  have,  and  my 
first  order  in  that  line  was  for  four  bushels  of  apple  seeds  from 
New  York.  Before  a  return,  a  letter  had  been  sent  to  a  Post  Mas 
ter  to  learn  who  I  was,  and  if  crazy?  The  answer  came  back 
"Safe  to  send  the  seed,  but  man  a  little  crazy."  This  is  the  way  I 
was  out.  I  had  the  seeds  frozen  in  sand,  and  then  planted  in  a 
nursery,  which  made  me  ready  to  offer  seedlings  free  to  all  neigh 
bor  passers-by,  and  for  those  of  the  class  who  prayed  for  daily 
bread  and  would  accept  that  "  only  baked  ",  I  gave  the  grafted  seed 
lings,  having  filled  my  cellar  and  found  occupation  for  myself  and 
expert  during  the  winter.  It  was  figured  that  the  seeds  would 
have  made,  grown  into  trees,  orchards  equal  to  an  area  of  100,000 
acres.  They  did  not  all  make  hardy  trees,  only  a  small  fraction, 
but  in  later  years  I  find  an  antidote  to  that  derision  in  seeing  trees 
laden  with  fruit,  and  accepting  frequent  invitations,  as  I  passed,  to 
eat  freely  of  the  fruit  and  take  a  basket  home.  I  had  the  fame  of 
an  amateur  fruit  grower,  and  later  wore  the  honors  in  securing  an 
Iowa  Gold  Medal  ('Mark'  Miller,  the  active  agent)  from  the 
National  Agricultural  Society,  while  President  of  the  Horticultural 
Society  whose  work  enlists  my  love  and  enthusiasm. 

A    CRAB    APPLE    PURCHASE    OF    "WHAT    A    MAN    HAD". 

In  Vermont  it  was  a  cellar  of  apples  and  cider,  and  thinking 
only  of  apples,  forgetful  of  crabs  as  a  variety,  I  made  a  huge  pit 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  105 

for  the  winter,  the  fruit  costing  fifty  cents  a  bushel.  The  loads 
brought  I  cannot  give,  but  they  were  as  free  as  cider  of  old,  and 
there  was  a  drawback  in  the  cost  of  reloading  and  carting  out  what 
would  not  survive  the  season.  I  never  bought  any  more  crabs,  and 
only  once  besides  "  what  a  man  had  ",  and  that  was  in  laying  in 
pork  hams  for  the  winter. 

There  was  a  rap  after  dark,  and  a  challenge,  "Will  you  buy 
some  pork  hams?  First  class,  and  I  reckon  you  have  not  laid  in 
your  meat."  "Yes,  we  have  men  and  they  are  hungry  —  how 
much  a  pound?"  "Two  cents."  (It  was  in  the  fall  of  1854.) 
"How  many?  I  guess  I  will  take  what  you  have  got/'  There 
proved  to  be  a  string  of  wagon  loads,  but  the  price  was  so  low  I 
said  nothing  about  the  quantity.  The  meat  was  deposited  in  Mr. 
Phelps'  cellar,  and  the  evening  diversion  for  weeks  was  rubbing 
salt  and  sugar  on  the  hams,  and  in  daytime  making  visiting  traders 
in  the  town  welcome  to  ham.  There  was  no  virtue  in  this,  for  I 
became  weary  of  the  cost  of  handling,  and  on  the  approach  of 
spring  learned  the  best  receipt  for  keeping  hams  in  the  summer 
was  to  eat  them  in  the  spring.  But  there  was  a  fortunate  stand 
off  to  this  hasty  bargain  —  the  names  of  those  to  whom  I  gave 
meat  were  not  socially  known  to  me,  but  one  appeared  later,  a 
stranger,  who  rendered  novel  and  actual  service.  Even  a  Bourbon 
Democrat  advocated  my  election  as  State  Senator  in  1856. 

FOURTH    OF    JULY    CELEBRATION    IN    1854. 

It  sprang  from  the  germinal  thought  that  between  the  bell  and 
a  new  hoisted  flag,  the  people,  though  with  no  tracks  to  guide  save 
Indian  trails,  could  tell  where  the  city  was  to  be.  A  three  hun 
dred  mile  trip  to  Chicago  was  made  on  behalf  of  the  children  of 
the  country,  for  candies  and  lemons,  also  for  powder,  the  cabin  set 
tlers  furnishing  chickens  and  bread.  Dr.  Sanford  was  an  imported 
orator ;  and,  in  regard  to  other  utterances  on  the  occasion,  I  do  not 
recall  such  screams  by  our  proud,  mountain  bird,  nor  soaring 
speeches  that  made  a  sweep  earthward  with  so  little  fitting  plum 
age  left  for  another  patriotic  occasion.  This  was  a  feast  rounded 
and  spiced  with  toasts,  and  responses  from  a  lumber  wagon,  fol 
lowed  by  songs,  cheers  and  the  rolling  drum.  Where  had  this 
crowd  come  from  ?  What  their  nativity  ?  This  was  learned  by  a 
call.  Native  Americanism  then  was  popular,  and  a  never-to-be-for- 


106  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY  YEARS. 

gotten  incident  must  here  be  related  which  will  illustrate  the  spirit 
of  the  times.  A  roll-call  of  states  revealed  the  fact  that  more 
than  twenty  were  represented,  also  Canada,  England  and  Scotland. 
Ireland  was  called  and  there  being  no  response,  it  was  called  again 
and  again ;  thereupon  an  ardent  American  answered,  "  There  is  not 
an  Irishman  within  ten  miles  of  here";  upon  which  a  still  more 
ardent  politician  and  Methodist  brother  jumped  up  and  clapped 
his  hands  shouting,  "  Bless  the  Lord !  Bless  the  Lord ! "  which, 
with  ludicrous  gesticulation,  so  convulsed  the  crowd  that  good 
order  was  not  again  restored.  Not  long  after  I  visited  my  old 
home  in  New  York  City,  and  was  an  invited  guest  at  an  open 
speaking  meeting  of  the  Native  American  Order.  I  related  the 
"Bless  the  Lord"  response.  So  high  was  the  feeling  that  they 
swung  their  hats,  shouting,  "By  the  gods,  let  us  emigrate."  Of 
course  a  vulgar  prejudice,  but  it  showed  the  spirit  of  the  Order 
east  and  west. 

OUR    CEMETERY    AND    THE    FIRST    BURIAL. 

In  after  years  many  may  take  a  deep  interest  in  the  founding 
of  our  town,  especially  as  the  incidents  are  related  to  its  character, 
and,  I  trust,  its  high  future. 

We  had  many  discussions  as  to  the  place  for  our  dead.  Prop 
erty  holders  did  not  deem  a  near  location  to  them  desirable. 
Some  wished  an  embowered  grove  selection,  three  miles  away — 
others  quite  near  on  the  main  road.  I  favored  the  place  now  occu 
pied,  covered  with  a  clump  of  hazel,  off  from  the  highway, 
abruptly  rolling,  and  overlooking  our  projected  city.  Of  course 
I  had  the  opportunity  of  donating  the  ground,  some  thirteen  acres, 
which  I  did,  without  conditions  or  reserve.  Since  its  occupation, 
there  has  been  but  one  opinion  as  to  the  beautiful  locality,  with  a 
sunny  slope,  ravines  made  by  water  courses,  and  a  natural  adapta 
tion  for  ornamentation  which  found  a  helpful  hand  and  artistic 
brain  in  Hon.  H.  G.  Little,  to  whom  with  J.  G-.  Dodge,  surveyor, 
and  E.  M.  Kellogg  and  others,  builders  of  the  Lodge,  we  are 
greatly  indebted.  They  are  of  a  group  who,  with  cultivated  taste 
and  sacrifice,  are  not  to  be  forgotten.  It  is  now  backed  by  the 
town  finances,  and  is  in  charge  of  the  "  Ladies'  Cemetery  Associa 
tion",  which  gives  promise  of  future  care  and  further  ornamenta 
tion.  It  was  twenty-five  years  before  there  was  an  enlargement, 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  107 

and  that  by  the  Order  of  Odd  Fellows,  who  have  joined  a  fine 
tract  of  ground  at  a  cost  of  one  hundred  dollars  an  acre,  and  laid 
out  according  to  a  landscape-gardening  plan  by  Professor  H.  W. 
Parker.  There  was  no  locality  set  apart  as  a  reminder  of  negro 
slavery,  nor  a  pauper's  neglected  corner ;  may  it  be  so,  the  rich  and 
poor  dwelling  together,  even  as  they  may  come  forth,  let  us  hope, 
in  kindred  immortality  to  recount  a  pleasurable  life-journey. 

I  witnessed  the  first  burial  on  the  plot,  in  1856.  It  was  that 
of  Mrs.  Jane  Patterson,  the  mother  of  a  large  family ;  her  husband 
was  a  Scotch  miner,  living  near  the  North-west  grove.  She  was 
one  of  the  charter  members  of  the  Congregational  Church.  She 
died  suddenly  at  home  with  her  family,  and  the  whole  community 
followed  her  to  the  burial.  The  lonely  spot  is  associated  with  the 
rumored  disturbance  of  the  grave,  but  the  suspicion  was  removed 
by  proof  that  prowling  wolves  had  disturbed  the  mound.  They 
were  trapped,  and  the  incident  kept  in  mind  by  their  fur,  which 
was  worn  by  the  adventurous  hunters  of  the  early  day. 

Hundreds  of  funerals  I  have  since  attended  there,  but  none 
were  so  solemn  as  the  first,  in  the  opening  of  the  virgin  breast  of 
earth,  and  the  vision  of  a  home  none  of  us  seek,  but  must  all  ere 
long  inhabit.  I  visit  it  to-day  to  read  lessons  nowhere  else  learned 
of  change,  decay,  families  dispersed ;  there  are  the  tributes  of  grief 
in  cold  marble,  and,  like  the  sable  garments  of  the  sorrowing,  the 
swaying  evergreens  and  moaning  pines,  even  more  sombre  in  win 
ter,  and  suggestive  in  the  eolian  strains  which  the  bleak  winds 
ever  inspire,  but  never  to  lull  in  forgetfulness  for  the  dear  ones 
who  have  charmed  the  households,  and  our  companions  who  had 
feebly  leaned  on  the  staff  of  honored  age. 

A    CHURCH    BELL. 

Since  it  was  not  at  my  expense  I  mention  another  foible,  so 
called.  A  bell,  when  no  church  or  people  !  —  yes,  a  real  Meneley 
—  G  tone,  weighing  mounted  a  thousand  pounds,  and  costing  a  few 
hundred  dollars.  It  was  a  loud,  wonder-voice  to  the  pioneer  grove 
residents,  and  I  count  it  an  investment  by  indirection,  better  than 
a  wide  spread  of  ink  as  an  advertisement.  It  meant  a  church  some 
day^  and  tolled  out  an  invitation  every  Sunday  before  a  building 
was  erected.  Gallants  made  journeys,  with  the  inamoratas,  to 
hear  plainly  what  only  feebly  echoed  through  the  grove.  Mothers 


108  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

hushed  juvenile  sobs  and  put  a  whole  family  on  good  behavior,  by 
promise  that  they  should  see  and  ring  the  Grinnell  bell.  So  it 
stood  a  free  toy  and  plaything  for  boys  who  would  strike  the  bell 
tongue  and  stop  their  ears  or  run.  It  could  not  mean  a  fire-alarm, 
for  there  were  no  dry  houses  to  burn,  nor  did  it  toll  for  a  funeral, 
for  a  robust  people  were  said  to  be  too  busy  to  die  or  think  of  it. 

The  bell,  for  two  years,  until  placed  in  the  tower  of  the  new 
school-house,  had  many  good  uses  for  the  belated  hunters  or  trav 
elers  on  dark  or  foggy  nights,  its  clear  tones  would  give  a  course? 
and  it  is  said  to  have  saved  many  from  a  chilly  sleep  on  the  home 
less  prairie,  arid,  on  good  authority,  to  have  been  the  fortunate 
sound  that  rescued  an  eminent  citizen  from  death  in  a  blizzard.  A 
country  girl,  some  time  after,  when  uniting  with  the  Church,  stated 
that  she  was  lost  with  her  companion  on  the  way  to  a  hotel  dance, 
and  she  was  kept  not  only  from  the  dance  but  from  a  snowy 
shroud,  by  the  bell  which  rang  for  the  weekly  prayer  meeting. 

If  this  was  only  a  legend  it  was  the  truth  that  the  bell  was  the 
musical  mentor  of  our  time,  ringing  us  up  in  the  morning  and  an 
inviting  signal  to  our  beds.  For  tardy  school  boys  there  was  Ho 
excuse ;  and  it  struck  the  age  of  our  dead,  and  tolled  the  funeral 
march  to  burial.  Alas  !  that  so  sweet-toned  a  friend  was  to  be 
melted  in  the  school-house  fire  after  twenty  years  of  service.  It 
found  mourners  in  several  poetic  effusions.  From  one  by  Rev.  J. 
H.  Kasson  we  quote  two  verses. 

THE    OLD    BELL. 

Farewell,  farewell, 

O  voiceless  bell  ! 

And  art  thou  but  a  cindered  mass, 
A  shapeless  thing  of  molton  brass  ? 
Why  feel  I  yet  thy  power 
At  flush  of  morn,  or  evening  hour  ? 
Why  steal  those  echoes  soft  and  clear 
That  linger  on  my  ravished  ear, 
As  if  thou  still  had'st  power  to  stir 
My  spirit  from  thy  sepulchre  ? 
Thou  art  become  historic  now  ! 
Thy  glorious  exit  shall  endow 
Thee  with  a  lustre  all  thine  own ; 
Others  may  ring  with  a  deeper  tone, 
But  to  oar  people  thou  art  eldest  born, 
A  star  in  all  the  beauty  of  our  morn  ; 
For  when  the  Fathers  first  these  prairies  trod 
Thou  earnest  like  a  messenger  of  God ; 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  109 

More  precious,  as  the  priceless  boon 

Of  him,*  who  sent  to  search  the  frozen  zone 

For  Franklin's  fated  band,  his  name,  his  place 

Among  the  benefactors  of  the  race. 

Daughter  of  music  !  on  the  Sabbath  air 

Thy  notes  descended,  like  the  soft  refrain 

Of  some  angelic  strain, 

Gently  persuading  to  the  House  of  Prayer, 

So  like  a  voice  of  Love, 

No  other  bell 

Can  make  the  heart  with  rapture  swell 
Like  thee,  celestial  Herald  of  Grinnell. 

THE    CHURCH. 

The  outgrowth  of  our  Christian  colony  is  the  largest  Protestant 
Church  in  the  State,  and  the  finest  auditorium,  befitting  the  cour 
age  and  liberality  of  the  members.  It  was  not  stimulated  by 
rivalry  or  city  adornment,  but  to  attract  and  blend  in  Christian 
fellowship  those  otherwise  strangers,  on  the  prairie  expanse. 
Early  plans  were  broadened  and  adapted  to  growth,  and  to  the 
laudable  ambition  of  a  people  in  love  with  the  old  ways.  The 
memorial  of  their  labors  is  here,  a  Church  numbering  more  than 
eight  hundred  members,  a  Sabbath  school  of  five  hundred,  and 
benevolence  in  correspondence  with  the  excellence  of  an  edifice  of 
stone,  costing,  including  organ  and  furniture,  fifty  thousand 
dollars. 

Who  should  write  this  history,  in  fidelity  to  the  memory  of  a 
long  list  of  fallen  comrades  and  in  honor  of  the  living,  but  he  who 
wrote  the  Church  creed  and  was  the  first  to  sign  it  —  the  minister 
by  voluntary  unpaid  service  for  years,  who  donated  the  site  for  the 
edifice  and  made  a  contribution  of  thousands  of  dollars  toward  its 
erection.  This  is  the  plain  narrative.  The  first  Congregational 
Church  of  Grinnell  had  its  inception  in  the  worship  of  eight  per 
sons  in  the  log  cabin  of  Perry  Matteson,  in  the  grove ;  the  second 
place  of  meeting,  with  a  larger  congregation,  was  in  the  shade  of 
the  native  oaks,  at  Mr.  Oakley's;  then  came  a  removal  of  the 
actors  to  the  "  Long  Home  ",  which  was  a  long,  rough,  board  shanty, 
vocal  with  praise  and  prayer,  while  yet  one  end  was  opened  to  the 
storm.  The  next  resort  for  service  was  Mr.  Anor  Scott's  store, 
the  goods  removed  from  the  counter,  where  men  sat  with  feet  sus 
pended,  and  the  centre  of  the  room  filled  with  chairs  from  houses 


*  Henry  Grinnell,  of  New  York. 


110  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY  YEARS. 

and  wagons — the  minister  making  a  barrel,  surmounted  by  a  can 
dle-box,  the  pulpit. 

In  the  winter  the  upper  part  of  the  first  hotel,  a  gaunt  house, 
afforded  fair  quarters.  Then  there  was  a  circuit  of  the  houses, 
and  a  church  organization  in  Mr.  L.  C.  Phelps'  parlor,  composed  of 
twenty  members,  of  whom  only  six  at  present  survive. 

What  will  be  the  best  church  location?  It  being  chosen,  it 
was  donated ;  and,  without  a  building,  it  would  be  worth  now  fif 
teen  or  twenty  thousand  dollars.  How  could  we  have  temporary 
quarters  for  Sabbath  school,  day  school  and  church  services  ?  By 
a  subscription,  and  giving  the  contract  to  the  lowest  bidder.  The 
minister,  at  a  formal  meeting,  got  the  bid  for  a  building,  seated, 
eighteen  by  thirty  feet,  for  less  than  $200.  A  deacon  urged  that  it 
should  be  completed  in  a  month  or  two.  The  contractor  responded 
(it  was  Monday  night)  "Next  Sunday!"  "No!  it  is  not  possi 
ble."  The  lumber  was  growing  in  the  tree,  only  a  horse-mill  was 
near,  and  hardware  sixty-five  miles  distant;  yet  in  a  time  of  mud, 
and  locomotion  by  stage  at  four  miles  an  hour,  the  edifice  was 
ready  for  the  next  Sunday  service,  and  was  dedicated  by  song  and 
sermon.  It  was  without  the  columns  and  arches  of  modern  archi 
tecture,  and  was  innocent  of  paint  or  plane,  —  save  the  windows 
and  cases  imported  —  but  it  rendered  good  service  for  a  crowded 
and  thankful  congregation,  bringing  equal  elation  with  the  occu 
pancy,  twenty-five  years  later,  of  the  artistic  stone  church.  There 
was  no  night  so  dark  or  storm  so  severe  as  to  prevent  a  weekly 
prayer-meeting,  until  the  warping,  green  boards  let  in  the  rain, 
even,  as  was  said,  moistening  the  sermon  on  the  desk,  "  too  much 
to  be  laid  up  in  the  barrel." 

The  next  church  occupancy  was  the  upper  room  of  the  new 
school-house.  This  was  a  pretentious  building  forty  feet  square, 
and  here  was  held  the  State  Association  of  1856,  the  room  only 
lathed  ready  for  plastering. 

There  are  two  mysteries :  how  the  state  ministers  and  dele 
gates  came  to  accept  an  invitation,  and  how  our  people  came  to 
give  it.  The  nearest  railroad  was  sixty-five  miles  east;  stages 
were  crowded,  and  springless  lumber  wagons,  offered  for  the  occa 
sion,  furnished  the  best  means  of  travel.  These  wagons  were  free ; 
but  what  a  weary,  unromantic  trip  for  the  visitors,  society  agents, 
and  venerable  D.  D.s,  like  Dr.  Tappan  of  Maine,  who  preached  the 
sermon.  It  was  bravery  and  devotion. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS.  Ill 

AN    INCIDENT. 

' 

. 

In  the  midst  of  the  sermon  there  came  up  one  of  those  fright 
ful  summer  storms,  with  rain,  thunder  and  lightning,  which  scat 
tered  the  congregation,  leaving  only  a  score,  all  vexed  with  the 
persistency  of  the  preacher  who  should,  in  the  tumult,  have  cut 
short  his  message. 

"  No,"  said  Dr.  Tappan,  "  I  came  fifteen  hundred  miles  to  give 
the  sermon,  and  no  rain  or  thunder,  nothing  short  of  a  lightning 
stroke,  was  to  stop  me  ! "  The  unrest  of  that  hour  to  the  audience 
when  no  one  could  or  would  hear,  is  still  in  memory.  It  was  the 
first  of  four  state  meetings  held  in  Grinnell,  and  none  have  been 
more  welcome,  even  if  every  resident  offered  to  sleep  on  the  floor 
to  give  the  guests  a  bed ;  and  the  discomfort  of  a  rude  wagon  ride 
was  a  painful  necessity  both  to  guest  and  host,  so  long  before  the 
pleasures  of  a  Pullman  car. 

The  Grinnell  church  imparted  cheer,  asked  no  foreign  aid,  and 
stimulated  pecuniarily  the  organization  of  churches  within  a  radius 
of  fifty  miles,  where  then  we  had  none.  We  helped  not  only 
in  church  councils,  but  gave  cheerfully  for  the  rearing  of  their 
edifices. 

If  it  is  supposed  that  a  gieat  church  sprang  into  being  and  was 
perpetuated  in  power  on  the  virgin  prairie,  as  an  incident  merely 
to  emigration,  no  greater  delusion  could  be  indulged.  There  was 
manual  toil  and  even  sacrifice  in  making  a  church  house.  There 
was  no  money  to  pay  the  first  minister  had  he  demanded  it ;  and 
there  came  the  free  and  able  sermons,  after  two  years,  by  S.  L. 
Herrick,  L.  C.  Rouse  and  Rev.  Samuel  Loomis,  a  young  man  of 
education  and  fine  spirit,  seeking  health.  At  that  time  only  strat 
egy  and  firmness  prevented  the  religious  people  from  discussions 
and  frictions  which,  in  our  weakness  as  to  numbers,  would  have 
made  the  race  and  frictions  of  sects  a  burlesque  before  the  world. 

The  Catholics  made  their  usual  church  purchase  of  land  costing 
$1,000,  but  it  was  only  after  twenty-five  years  that  our  city  peo 
ple,  on  another  location,  gave  for  their  church  building.  There  are 
now  strong  Methodist  and  Baptist  societies,  which  only  a  blind, 
religious  zeal  would  have  established  earlier  and  for  mutual  harm. 
Ministers  were  met  of  all  denominations  and  heard  with  a  frater 
nal  spirit,  but  with  decided  convictions  as  to  the  impolicy  of  many 
churches,  before  there  was  occasion  for  more  than  one.  There 


112  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

were  Baptists,  Methodists,  three  kinds  of  Presbyterians,  yet  a 
creed  in  the  founding  of  our  first  church  was  so  catholic  that  real 
Christians  were  at  home  in  one  assembly ;  thus  everything  repel 
lent  was  avoided,  and  a  resort  had  to  the  best  devices  for  cohesion 
on  the  basis  of  "  unity  in  non-essentials ".  This  was  the  spirit  of 
the  creed,  and  a  departure  from  its  catholicity  would  have  been  an 
offense. 

It  was  a  very  old  school  Pennsylvania  Presbyterian,  a  chance 
supply  and  a  speaker  in  Sunday  school,  praising  the  reprint  of 
"the  shorter  catechism",  and  expounding  it  in  the  words  of  the 
New  England  primer,  "In  Adam's  fall  we  sinned  all";  then 
appealing  for  approval  to  me,  I  said,  "I  was  not  there — presume  I 
should  have  sinned  if  I  had  been,  but  was  not."  He  looked  a  Sun 
day  dagger  at  me.* 

Another  ardent  visiting  minister  said,  "  We  must  stand  by  our 
guns  and  have  a  church."  The  sequel  of  his  appeal  was,  his  little 
sect  did  not  even  come  to  sit  and  see  him  fire.  His  was  a  sample 
of  the  mission  of  zealots  not  confined  to  one  sect. 

The  Methodists,  like  the  others,  now  prosper.  Churches 
waited  their  time  to  find  welcome  and  sympathy.  Charles  Allen, 
of  Blue  Point,  a  local  preacher,  on  my  invitation  preached  the  first 
Methodist  sermon.  He  was  a  gooo^  man,  but  his  erudition  is 
known  by  this  incident.  Motioning  to  me  he  said,  "Please, 
brother,  come  up  and  read  the  hymm ;  I  cannot.  You  know  down 
South  there  were  not  many  schools  for  white  or  black,  when  I  was 
young.  You  are  a  kind  of  Yankees,  I  see,  that  speak  the  Gospel 
as  well  as  read  it.  We  don't  want  any  church  now,  but  when 
you're  full  let  there  be  a  Methodist  swarm"-  — and  there  was, 


*Our  Congregational  creed  of  1883  was  not  then  written  :  "Sin  is  the  act  of 
the  creature  alone."  This  relieved  the  old  Adam,  confusing  if  not  hushing  the 
discussions  of  the  schools,  old  and  new,  which  did  not  disturb  me.  I  was  perhaps 
rudely  opposed  to  encouraging  the  organization  of  what  would  be  a  starveling 
church,  in  a  community  of  a  few  hundreds.  Derisively,  I  held  the  room  was  not 
here,  no  more  than  for  ague  or  milk  sickness,  which  could  be  found  further  on ; 
and  it  was  said  that  I  "  coaxed  good  men,  wishing  to  start  rival  churches,  to  move 
on,  by  paying  their  stage  fare"  —  all  of  which  is  too  late  for  explanation  or 
denial ;  whether  it  was  an  act  of  pious  strategy  or  of  sectarianism  is  a  question  for 
others.  In  majorities  I  can  rest  with  the  belief  that  the  day  of  Christian  comity 
and  regard  for  religious  endeavor,  unheedful  of  mere  sectarianism,  will  have  the 
approbation  of  all  good  men.  In  one  rather  typical  western  town  not  far  from  us, 
there  were  recently  thirteen  religious  organizations,  and  but  thirteen  hundred 
inhabitants. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  H3 

•under  good  and  able  leaders,  if  not  a  swarm,  a  church  large  and 
prosperous.  There  was  a  Seventh-day  Baptist,  sure  to  chop  on 
Sunday,  who  long  carried  a  theological  chip  on  his  shoulder,  wait 
ing  for  discussion.  We  were  too  busy  to  find  the  time,  and  if 
there  was  chopping  it  came  to  be  done  quietly  in  the  grove ;  and 
later,  by  toleration,  his  opinion  was,  "Sunday  is  as  good  a  day 
as  any,  and  I  will  keep  theirs,  as  they  don't  quarrel  about 
mine." 

The  so-called  liberals  from  the  east  were  numerous  and  strong 
at  one  period  in  our  church  history,  but  the  policy  of  silence  as  to 
differences  was  a  blow  at  negations.  Not  that  the  fundamental 
truths  were  suppressed,  but  debate  and  sharp  criticisms  were 
avoided.  Thus  the  tree  of  real  toleration  took  root  and  its 
branches  came  to  bear  fruit,  in  church  building  and  social  fellow 
ship,  rather  than  in  divisive  congregations.  It  gave  strength  to 
the  college,  no  less  than  to  the  church,  whose  founders  had  seen 
the  poverty  and  losses  by  many  sects  and  congregations,  where 
true  religion  demanded  but  one,  and  one  able  to  give  substantial 
aid  to  surrounding  settlements. 

AN    EPISODE. 

It  was  at  an  early  day,  that  an  Englishman,  a  stammerer,  pro 
fane,  and  a  grog-seller,  accosted  me  for  help  that  his  large  family 
and  the  neighborhood  might  have  a  summer  Sabbath  school. 
"  Well,  what  do  you  want  ?  "  "  We  have  nothing  but  the  people,  no 
school-house  or  shade."  I  could  give  but  one  response  to  his  unex 
pected  plea.  "We  will  get  you  some  books  to  sing  from  and  help 
you  to  get  started,"  and  the  response  was,  "I  will  see  that  a 
bower  is  built,  and  get  a  good  congregation."  The  books  were 
sent,  but  there  was  a  failure  to  attend  by  the  parties  who  were  to 
assist  on  the  opening  day.  After  long  waiting,  the  projector  of 
the  school  said,  "The  books  are  here,  the  whole  country  is  here 
seated ;  now,  what  shall  be  done  ?  "  Another  waiting.  "  Must  we 
break  up?  What  do  you  say?"  The  reply  was,  "No,  hold  on 
longer."  After  another  pause :  "I  hate  to  give  up.  As  I  under 
stand  it,  these  Sabbath  schools  are  opened  with  prayer.  Let  us 
not  be  dependent  on  Mr.  Grinnell."  The  stammerer  stood  up,  and 
called,  with  a  motion  to  each  in  the  circuit,  commencing  at  the  end 
seat,  "Will  you  pray,  sir?"  And  so  he  passed  along  to  every 


114  EENINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEAES. 

seat,  receiving  only  a  negative  nod.  "Well,  that  is  too  bad,  no 
Christian  here  to  pray,  but  we'll  not  give  up.  This  Sabbath  school 
shall  be  opened  by  prayer,  if  stammering  Bob  has  to  do  it  him 
self."  There  was  mingled  surprise  and  merriment  as  he  knelt 
down  upon  the  grass  to  make  his  first  audible  prayer.  Strange  to 
say,  the  stammering  tongue  was  loosened.  He  plead  for  the  chil 
dren,  and  for  himself.  It  was  the  beginning  of  a  new  life.  The 
prayer  of  the  profane  seemed  to  have  been  answered.  The  stam 
merer  became  fluent,  and,  encouraged  by  a  prosperous  Sabbath 
school,  there  was  a  foundation  laid  for  a  church  on  the  prairie  near 
the  spot  where  the  bower  was  erected,  and  dedicated  under  the 
leadership  of  one  who  was  no  longer,  as  formerly,  with  a  clogged 
tongue,  in  the  practice  of  profanity  and  a  dispenser  of  grog. 

Of  the  Grinnell  Church,  there  have  been  three  settled  pas 
tors —  Dr.  Samuel  D.  Cochran,  now  of  Normal,  111.,  Dr.  W.  W. 
Woodworth  of  Berlin,  Conn.,  lately  deceased,  and  Dr.  J.  M.  Stur- 
tevant,  of  Galesburg,  111.  They  were  happy  and  prosperous,  giv 
ing  valuable  service,  yet  none  were  wedded  to  the  theory  that  a 
long  pastorate  is  essential  to  the  best  interest  and  good  of  both 
parties.  Dr.  Cochran,  once  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  later  President  of 
Thayer  College,  Missouri,  is  the  author  of  an  able  theological  work. 
Dr.  Sturtevant,  of  Denver,  late  of  Cleveland,  0.,  is  a  son  of  Pres 
ident  Sturtevant  of  Illinois  College.  Rev.  H.  M.  Tenney,  late  of 
Cleveland,  is  now  the  devoted  acting  pastor. 

With  the  masses  there  was  a  single  purpose  never  lost  sight  of 
in  the  dark  days  of  war  and  the  trying  time  of  sacrifices  in  church 
building.  The  church  of  1859  was  in  its  erection  a  greater  sacri 
fice  than  the  large,  noble,  gothic  stone  edifice  of  1879.  A  pittance 
for  the  first  salaried  minister  was  gained  by  an  extreme  effort  com 
pared  to  the  annual  raising  of  $2,000  for  the  last,  and  a  larger 
sum  now. 

Debts  and  contracts  were  made  in  faith  without  special  knowl 
edge.  There  was  an  abounding  stream  in  varied  charities,  and  the 
monthly  missionary  collection  was  never  omitted.  The  leader,  on 
one  occasion,  furnished  an  incident  in  point.  Leaving  the  house, 
my  wife  said,  "I  have  no  money  for  the  box — have  you?"  "Not 
a  cent."  "Well,  there  will  have  to  be  one  failure."  The  same 
person  in  church  said  that  for  every  good  cause  in  some  way  there 
had  so  far  been  a  provision,  but  to-night  the  rule  for  him  must 
have  an  exception,  for  neither  in  the  pocket  nor  in  the  family  was 


EEMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS.  115 

there  any  money.  He  was  about  to  sit  down  when  the  habit  of 
placing  the  forefinger  in  the  vest  pocket,  brought  forth  a  discov 
ery  of  a  roll  of  bills,  in  amount  far  above  the  usual  contribution, 
which  was  exhibited  in  surprise  and  amid  great  merriment.  It 
was  more  than  a  telling  incident,  an  appeal  for  that  trust  which 
has  ever  been  with  the  Grinnell  Church. 

It  was  a  glad  day,  when  from  the  old  church,  three  times 
enlarged,  there  was  the  occupancy  of  the  new  stone  church. 
There  was  a  farewell  service  held  in  the  old  building.  The  follow 
ing  is  an  extract  from  the  historical  speech,  reported  in  a  news 
paper  at  the  time : 

THE    HISTORIC    CHURCH. 


Mr.  Grinnell,  called  upon  to  speak  on  "what  had  been  said  in  the  old 
church,"  said:  The  eloquence  of  song  in  secular  and  sacred  strains  and  lays  who 
can  measure  !  To  the  choir  must  be  added  amateurs,  professionals,  old  style  and 
modern,  including  the  renowned  Hutchinsons,  the  family  of  John  and  Asa; 
Fessenden,  Camilla  Urso,  Mendelssohn  Quintette  club,  Phillip  Phillips,  and 
Queens  of  song  without  number.  Poets,  with  the  enchanting  verse  of  H.  W. 
Parker  at  sheep-shearing  festival,  J.  G.  Saxe  with  wit  and  pun,  have  stood  here. 
Benjamin  F.  Taylor,  poet  and  word  painter,  is  remembered  yet,  and  Bayard 
Taylor,  deceased  diplomat,  not  again  shall  repeat  the  Bedouin  song — 

"  From  the  desert  I  come  to  thee, 
On  a  stallion  shod  with  fire  ; 
And  the  winds  are  left  behind, 
In  the  speed  of  my  desire." 

Readers  of  the  American  classics,  with  the  versatility  of  Mrs.  Potter,  the  his 
trionic  recitations  of  Scott  Siddons  and  the  unequaled  Prof.  Churchill,  have  here 
bowed  acknowledgements.  Ladies  of  national  fame  —  Mrs.  Livermore,  Lucy 
Stone,  Anna  Dickinson,  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  and  missionaries  from  many 
lands  have  by  public  addresses  indicated  a  difference  with  the  Apostle  as  to 
woman-speaking.  Temperance  advocates  Vinton,  Jessup  and  Francis  Murphy 
have  given  counsel.  Thomas  Nast  has  drawn  to  the  life  and  in  cariacature  on 
these  walls. 

Apostle  Moody  preached  his  lay  sermons  here,  and  Robert  Burdette,  after  con 
vulsing  cities  with  his  wit,  has  here  plied  us  with  unique  manner  and  artistic 
speech. 

Speakers  with  more  than  national  fame  have  won  our  hearts  from  this  plat 
form:  Frederic  Douglas,  the  escaped  slave  and  American  prodigy;  Henry 
Vincent,  of  London,  thrice  has  charmed  us  with  great  thoughts  and  dramatic 
speech  ;  Vice-President  Colfax  has  told  his  story  of  the  martyr  Lincoln  ;  Joseph 
Cook,  theologian,  lecturer  and  author,  here  won  the  thinkers;  Horace  Greeley, 
the  great  editor  and  philanthropist  —  asking  on  his  tombstone  the  modest  in 
memoriam  —  "The  founder />f  the  New  York  Tribune,"  is  yet  embalmed  in  mem 
ory  ;  Wendel  Phillips,  the  silver-tongued  orator,  matchless  in  diction  and  grace  on 
every  platform  where  truth  was  to  be  championed,  was  here  thrice  welcome; 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  the  versatile  literary  genius  of  the  century  and  great 


116  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 


preacher,  talked  of  "hard  times,"  of  which  he  knew  so  little.  Phillips,  Beecher 
and  Greeley  will  longest  he  remembered  hy  the  special  trains  which  their  fame 
chartered,  packing  this  old  ark,  in  the  language  of  the  time,  like  dried  hoxed  her 
ring,  and  bringing  thousands  of  dollars  to  the  treasury  of  the  Young  Ladies'  Social, 
which  has  lighted,  cushioned  and  carpeted  the  beautiful  church  house  which  we 
are  eager  to  occupy  ;  and  for  these  intellectual  banquets  we  are  indebted  to  the 
ladies  of  the  Social  Circle. 

Here  the  Iowa  State  Congregational  Association  has  met,  bringing  hundreds 
of  delegates  and  divines  for  deliberation  and  speech,  and  we  have  here  listened  to 
Dr.  Swing,  Secretary  Alden,  Secretary  Clark,  Drs.  Goodell  and  Bobbins,  Bay 
Palmer,  D.  D.,  and  others. 

Iowa  College  has  drawn  here  presidents  of  Colleges — Sturtevant,  Fairchild, 
Bascom,  Thatcher,  Welch,  Pickard  and  others  — eloquent  and  profound.  Seven 
teen  College  Commencements  have  been  held  here — "great  day  for  which  all 
other  days  were  made"  to  students  with  oratorical  contests  and  graduation 
speeches  and  baccalaureates. 

Here  politicians  have  been  particularly  at  home.  Most  of  our  Supreme  Judges 
in  the  state  have  spoken  here.  Every  Governor  elected  for  the  last  twenty-five 
years,  and  every  member  of  Congress  from  this  district,  and  our  United  States 
Senators  have  given  us  the  benefit  of  their  oratory  and  wisdom.  The  more  than 
casual  speakers  I  need  not  name.  One  now  in  advanced  age  fills  Cowper's  descrip 
tion  of  the  man  of  God  — he  is  here.  A  faultless  rhetoric  in  earnest  manner  indi 
cates  him  I  need  not  name,  President  and  Preacher,  Dr.  Magoun.  The  pastors 
called  from  our  service,  Cochrane  and  Woodworth,  logical,  learned  and  devoted, 
on  whose  departure  many  cried  in  spirit,  "  The  chariot  of  Israel  and  the  horsemen 
thereof."  They  ploughed  deep  and  sowed  beside  all  waters  in  preparation  for  one 
with  courage  and  adaptive  skill,  the  excellencies  of  whom  I  am  forbidden  to  men 
tion  by  his  presence. 

Patriotic  captains  have  here  addressed  numerous  war  meetings,  enlisting  sol 
diers  never  returning,  and  ministers  of  peace  have  found  audience.  Pathetic  sto 
ries  of  escaped  slaves,  and  Mormonism  exposed  by  a  victim,  with  Woman's  Rights 
logically  taught,  with  the  wronged  taxed  without  a  voice  or  ballot,  have  been  wel 
comed  in  variety.  Of  our  dead  whose  sacred  dust  sleeps  in  our  beautiful  cemetery, 
I  recall  Missionary  Grain,  Rev.  and  Father  Rouse,  Cushman,  eccentric  and  benev 
olent,  Hamlin  one  of  our  city  founders,  leaving  secular  toil  for  the  sacred  office, 
the  devoted  J.  H.  Kasson,  minister,  logician  and  poet. 

I  see  the  flags  unfurled  at  the  head  of  military  columns  while  drums  are  beat 
ing  ;  I  hear  the  shouts  on  the  news  of  victories  of  our  arms  and  sighs  for  the  fallen 
brave.  Nor  would  I  obliterate  the  plighting  of  hearts  at  the  marriage  altar,  the 
consolatory  words  when  last  looking  on  the  face  of  the  dead,  or  the  solemn  vows 
made  to  God  and  man  in  church  covenant. 

Good-by,  old  church,  whose  walls  have  echoed  the  voiced  wants  of  society  for 
peace  and  culture,  and  the  woes  of  a  nation  ! 

Farewell,  with  the  loves  of  a  child  for  the  paternal  roof.  We  pass  to  yon 
beautiful  walls  to  enjoy  the  ministeries  and  pure  devices  of  modern  art.  Yet 
though  the  new  may  be  spared  for  hundreds  of  years,  so  many  of  the  notable  of 
earth  may  never  find  audience  as  those  in  this  old  pioneer  edifice.  No  cathe 
dral  with  storied  window  casting  "a  dim,  religious  light,"  or  modern  Puritan 
church  has  evoked  nobler  deeds  or  inspired  abler  ministers.  Removed  this  must 
be,  but  not  by  vandal  hands ;  rather  let  time's  effacing  fingers  destroy  this  land 
mark,  Lyceum  Hall,  Lay  College,  our  Prairie  May  Flower,  for  the  education  of 
the  people,  who  have  here  learned  of  duty,  and  the  wants  of  man  and  country, 
and  the  claims  of  God. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

State  Senator  —  Free  School  Law — Congressional   Canvass — How 
I  became  a  Lawyer. 

THIS  practical  chapter  will  be  opened  by  a  colloquy  in  1856. 
An  Eastern  neighbor  visited  me  as  a  guest.  "Well,"  said  he, 
"  you  are  out  of  the  old  Eastern  ruts,  and  I  trust  can  rest  happy  in 
your  possessions  and  prospects."  The  reply  was,  "  Far  from  it,  I 
am  in  the  centre  of  a  paradise  of  poor  people.  The  soil  in  great 
tracts,  is  largely  owned  by  non-residents,  and  sordid  bachelors. 
The  father  of  a  large  family  has  the  burdens  of  educating,  feeding 
and  clothing,  while  the  schools  should  be  free,  to  add  value  to  the 
land  and  make  a  model  country.  Please,  my  friend,  do  not  flat 
ter  us  with  the  delusion  that  we  can  raise  grain  and  feed  the  world 
with  profit,  so  long  as  we  have  but  fifty  miles  of  railway  in  the 
state,  and  grain  is  worth  nothing,  hundreds  of  miles  from  where 
the  consumer  of  our  supplies  lives.  We  must  have  sheep  to  raise 
wool,  and  factories  by  our  coal  fields,  and  water-power."  The 
friend  replies,  "These  are  matters  of  time;  you  have  good  soil,  and 
not  the  fight  of  your  Kansas  neighbors  on  hand.  You  will  enlarge 
your  school-houses,  get  railroads,  and  drink  less  whiskey,  by  and 
by." 

I  said,  "  We  can't  keep  out  of  the  Kansas  fight,  and  I  am  sick 
of  the  debauchery  going  on  where  cheap  whiskey  is  freer  than  milk, 
and,  despite  the  resolve  to  keep  out  of  politics,  I  find  myself  in  the 
whirl,  and  here  is  my  platform:  No  Liquor  Shops;  Free  School 
for  Iowa ;  No  Nationalizing  of  Slavery.  In  public  or  private,  in 
youth  and  age,  failure  or  not  as  a  citizen,  these  will  be  planks  on 
my  political  craft  until  we  get  from  under  the  dark  clouds  of 
to-day." 

The  New  Yorker  replies,  "Very  well,  but  is  it  not  perfectly 
clear  that  your  standard  is  too  high  for  the  frontier  ?  I  want  to 
see  you  senator  from  a  gem  of  a  city,  but  you  array  money,  politi- 


118  REMINISCENCES    OF  FOTEY  YEAES. 

cians,  and  all  the  power  of  the  nation,  with  'Old  Buck'  against 
you.  Wait." 

Nothing  more  is  written  as  to  this  visit  than  a  remark,  "  We 
shall  strike  high,  and  win  with  an  issue  which  we  can  carry  in 
debate ;  and,  if  our  people  are  not  ready,  we  can  get  a  new  railroad 
for  coal,  import  sheep,  set  out  trees,  school  the  children  at  our  uni 
versity,  and  have  self-respect  at  least  while  waiting  for  the  'good 
time  coming7." 

It  is  with  this  spirit  that  the  actor  tells,  in  reminiscences  as 
taken  from  the  local  press,  of  the  road  to  an  election  as  state  sen 
ator,  member  of  congress,  and  his  part  in  a  free  school  law,  beer 
exemption,  John  Brown's  visit,  and  the  live  questions  ante-bellum. 

The  town  well  advancing,  and  novelties  of  pioneering  recounted 
even  to  satiety,  and  Grinnell  University  more  than  projected,  what 
next  ?  Here  was  Iowa  inchoate,  the  rudiments  of  empire  warm 
and  ready  for  moulding,  and  a  nation  in  the  midst  of  heated  dis 
cussion,  and  on  the  eve  of  critical  events  related  to  territorial 
slavery-extension  and  to  war. 

At  a  state  convention  of  republicans  in  Iowa  City,  where  hund 
reds  met  as  strangers,  there  was  a  delicate  task  in  harmonizing  a 
temperance  element,  very  decided;  also  in  an  accretion  of  the 
American  recruits  ("know  nothings"),  all  to  be  moulded  with  the 
old  whigs  for  an  advancing  column,  to  keep  state  control  and  a  del 
egation  in  Washington,  up  to  our  ideals  of  progress.  The  discus 
sions  were  sharp  and  able,  with  a  harmonious  result  securing  the 
election  of  a  free-soil  state  ticket,  in  the  line  of  a  political  faith 
held  in  Iowa  without  waver  or  "  shadow  of  turning  "  for  more  than 
thirty  years. 

I  was  chosen  to  write  the  state  address  by  a  vote  of  the  conven 
tion.  It  was  a  delicate  task,  but  I  availed  myself  of  the  light  shed 
by  discussion  and  took  up  boldly  the  plain  features  of  our  national 
issue.  Governor  S.  P.  Chase  of  Ohio,  sent  me  a  letter  in  praise  of 
my  effort,  too  flattering  for  the  public  eye.  We  had  many  encour 
agements  from  abroad  as  well  as  at  home.  Our  state  seemed 
about  to  repel  Bourbon  ideas  as  to  freedom  and  education,  under 
the  guidance  of  leaders  like  Senator  James  Harlan  and  Governor 
Grimes. 

Frankly  I  was  more  than  willing  to  be  state  senator  from  the 
four  counties  of  the  district,  if  I  could  stand  on  the  three  planks. 
The  nomination  and  platform  was  accorded  me,  and  I  still  deem 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   TEARS.  119 

my  ambition  honorable  in  presence  of  great  issues ;  as  when,  later, 
I  aspired  to  go  to  Congress  (not  being  accepted  as  a  soldier)  at  the 
time  the  national  honor  and  life  were  in  peril  by  the  treacheries  of 
ambition  and  assaults  of  war. 

I  was  unanimously  nominated  for  senator  without  a  canvass; 
and  Reuben  Michel,  a  lawyer-banker  of  Montezuma,  was  named 
by  the  democracy.  Soon,  according  to  the  usages  of  the  county,  I 
challenged  him  to  a  debate.  The  preliminaries  were  settled.  For 
est  Home,  in  my  county,  was  the  first  place  of  meeting,  which 
attracted  the  people  in  a  circuit  of  many  miles.  It  was  my  lot  to 
open  with  an  hour  and  close  with  a  half  hour,  leaving  Mr.  Michel 
an  hour  and  a  half.  The  most  that  I  now  remember  is  an  assault 
on  his  party  for  its  hypocritical  professions,  now  on  its  knees  to 
the  South,  encouraging  outlawry  in  Kansas,  belying  Jefferson  in 
the  state  and  Wesley  in  the  church,  who  had  pictured  slavery  in 
its  true  colors.  Iowa  democratic  resolves  I  took  up,  asking,  as  I 
passed  along,  a  vote  on  them,  and  the  opinion  of  my  opponent, 
which  he  was  slow  to  give.  I  then  held  up  the  democratic  whis 
key  law,  fallen  with  dishonor  in  the  streets ;  public  schools  a  bur 
lesque  ;  old  bachelors  and  great  land  holders  exempt,  while  for  the 
children  of  the  poor  there  was  a  daily  roll-call  for  taxation  —  a  dis 
grace  to  the  age.  I  ended  with  bold  questions  to  be  answered,  and 
a  promise  to  do  what  I  saw  by  their  welcome  I  was  to  do  as 
their  senator. 

Mr.  Michel  was  personally  popular,  mild  in  manner  and  knew 
how  to  play  on  prejudice  and  ask  sympathy.  He  did  not  wish  to 
deny,  in  fact  did  not  understand  my  statements,  had  not  read  so  as 
to  answer  my  questions.  For  politics  he  had  little  taste  and  knew 
of  few  facts,  but  could  learn.  I  saw  at  once  his  patronizing  way, 
but  he  had  blundered  in  a  tilt  at  Yankees,  "  as  good  traders  but 
never  giving,  yet  liberal  at  public  expense".  This  was  branded  as 
a  lie  in  a  sharp  retort  from  his  coterie  of  professional  friends,  for 
I  had  the  previous  winter,  as  already  narrated,  given  away  in  a 
very  promiscuous  manner  the  loads  of  pork  hams,  perhaps  more 
easily  disposed  of  than  kept  —  an  act  trivial  in  itself,  yet  it  was  in 
outcome  as  bread  "  cast  on  the  waters  ". 

At  the  close  I  asked  certain  questions  —  among  them  —  "Is 
not  my  competitor  rather  old  to  learn?  He  answers  neither  yes 
nor  no.  Whom  will  you  prefer,  one  who  knows  and  is  ready  to 
answer,  or  a  candidate  that  don't  know?"  The  shout  went  up, 


120  REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY    TEARS. 

"Nary  know  nothing,"  etc.  It  was  plain  where  the  crowd  stood 
after  the  fatal  admissions  of  Mr.  Michel ;  yet  he  stood  high  per 
sonally,  and  later  he  was  the  master-mason  of  the  state,  wealthy, 
but  meeting  reverses  in  mining,  and  drifting  to  the  Pacific  coast, 
where  he  was  assassinated  at  sixty  years  of  age.  Not  one  of  his 
many  appointments  in  this  campaign  did  he  fill,  but  pushed  out  for 
the  discussion  an  M.  D.,  with  less  character  and  more  tact  than  the 
would-be  senator.  The  people  were  for  free  Kansas,  and  through 
the  district  it  was  held  that  lands  should  be  taxed  for  schools,  and 
the  large  bachelor  land-holders  made  to  pay  for  the  general  good, 
if  not  rushing  into  matrimony  with  a  probable  direct  interest  in 
free  schools. 

Iowa  at  this  date,  1856,  had  but  one  fourth  its  present  popula 
tion;  only  fifty-five  miles  existed  of  railway  of  our  present  eight 
thousand  miles ;  and  no  institutions  fit  for  mention  save  a  state 
prison  (a  necessity  by  free  whiskey),  and  a  place  for  Indian  half- 
breeds  at  Fort  Madison.  For  all  the  charitable  institutions  now 
eur  pride,  I  was  an  advocate,  especially  in  favor  of  the  lunatic  asy 
lum  at  Mount  Pleasant,  held  by  the  Bourbons  to  be  large  enough 
by  the  plan  to  " house  all  the  voters  of  Iowa";  yet  it  was  soon 
full,  and  an  early  call  made  for  two  buildings  in  addition.  I  inau 
gurated  a  free  local  town  system  of  voting,  as  a  step  toward  state 
free  schools.  The  next  winter  after  the  removal  of  the  Capitol  to 
Des  Moines  under  a  constitutional  provision,  the  question  came  up 
of  a  land  appropriation  by  the  general  government  for  an  agricul 
tural  college,  for  which  I  had  the  honor  of  being  the  first  in  the 
Senate  to  circulate  a  petition,  resulting  in  the  great  institution  at 
Ames,  Iowa. 

The  State  University  at  Iowa  City  was  treated  with  liberality, 
the  legislature  making  me  a  regent,  after  service  as  chairman  of 
the  committee  on  schools  and  state  university.  It  was  no  small 
task  to  bring  to  light,  and  save  losses  by  the  Dr.  Eads'  loan  of  the 
school  fund.  Next  in  importance  to  the  election  of  Governor 
G-rimes  as  United  States  Senator,  was  that  of  securing  the  passage 
of  a  state  free  school  law.  The  Lieutenant-Governor,  Oran 
Faville,  had  been  for  long  years  a  teacher  and  college  professor 
East,  and  had  made  an  educational  canvass  in  a  circuit  from 
Mitchell  county  in  the  North.  He  wrote  the  following  note  on 
the  issue  before  the  committee  of  which  I  was  made  chairman: 
"  My  dear  Governor  Grimes :  —  You  take  so  lively  an  interest  in 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS.  121 

the  passage  of  this  Free  School  Law  that  I  wish  you  to  advise  me 
as  to  the  chairmanship  of  the  senate  committee  on  schools  and  uni 
versity."  This  was  the  reply,  "  Grinnell,  of  Poweshiek  County, 
was  elected  on  the  school  issue.  He  will  take  charge  of  the  bill 
and  knows  no  such  word  as  fail." 

It  did  look  like  a  failure.  It  was  "  Wait,  correspond ;  too  high 
notions  for  a  new  state  with  log  houses,  mortgages  and  poor 
roads."  Mine  was  a  missionary  work,  holding  back  radical  ideas 
to  win  by  suasion  those  members  who  were  jealous 'of  Yankees. 
In  a  local  storm  centre  I  assented  to  elimination  and  revisals  to 
avoid  failure. 

It  is  due  to  the  facts  of  history  that  I  should  give  credit  to  the 
commissioners  selected  by  Governor  Grimes  —  Hon.  Horace  Mann, 
chancellor,  Mr.  Dean  of  New  York,  and  Hon.  Fred  E.  Bissell  of 
Dubuque.  These  names  should  have  been  the  potential  argument, 
yet  were  decried  as  those  of  theorists,  though  it  was  true  that  our 
Iowa  Mr.  Bissell  had  given  more  attention  to  politics  than  the 
scheme  of  a  board  of  education.  To  that  law  I  gave  my  thoughts 
for  weeks,  and  still  think  my  most  effective  efforts  in  speech  were 
made,  as  was  said  by  Mr.  Thaddeus  Stevens  many  years  later,  "  for 
children  without  voice  or  vote,  and  posterity  beyond  human  enu 
meration."  My  general  neglect  in  small  matters  prevents  a  possi 
ble  infliction  on  the  reader,  of  a  speech,  on  which  I  laid  myself  out, 
and  which,  by  a  common  assent,  hushed  the  slurs  of  "the  Hairy 
Nation"  obstructives.  Mr.  Amos  Dean  was  an  eminent  lawyer 
and  a  disciple  of  John  A.  Dix,  the  latter  a  noted  general  and  gov 
ernor.  Mr.  Dean  used  Iowa  as  a  stepping-stone  to  a  larger  place 
in  the  affairs  of  New  York,  with  a  very  common  and  human  idea 
as  to  calls  and  collaterals  at  cross  roads,  for  all  of  which  he  was 
far  from  blame  and  is  worthy  of  a  place  in  our  educational  annals. 

Horace  Mann,  ever  since  I  was  a  country  teacher,  had  been  like 
a  fixed  star  in  the  educational  horizon.  I  first  heard  him  at  a 
state  gathering  in  Utica,  New  York  • —  pale,  nervous,  with  a  broad 
almost  deformed  brow  in  massiveness.  The  speech  was  fresh  in 
every  line,  even  electrical,  as  he  painted  ignorance  in  all  its 
deformity.  I  next  knew  him  in  Washington,  the  successor  of 
John  Quincy  Adams,  too  stern  for  a  popular  member,  but  an  edu 
cator  by  speeches,  sent  home  to  stay  a  retreat  toward  the  castle  of 
"  Union  Saviors "  by  profession,  and  the  conservative  worship  of 
Mr.  Webster  after  his  7th  of  March  speech. 


122  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

For  Congress  as  a  bear  garden  there  was  intense  disgust,  yet  in 
the  parlor  he  had  a  child's  simplicity,  and  no  aversion  to  those 
games  in  Dr.  Bailey's  parlors  which  I  have  described.  Was  he 
not  a  pioneer  in  thought,  a  fearless  champion  of  all  good,  reckless 
of  idols  dethroned  on  his  march  ?  His  correspondence  was  a  great 
help  in  our  school  law  discussion,  for,  while  set  in  opinion,  he  was 
in  minor  matters  pliable  like  willows  bent  by  river  currents  in 
flood  time.  Mann  was  the  equal  of  Webster  in  public  service,  save 
the  senatorial. 

The  State  of  Massachusetts  placed  his  statue  in  bronze  oppo 
site  that  of  the  great  expounder  of  the  constitution,  in  front  of  the 
State  House,  and  I  take  off  my  hat  in  the  great  presence,  and  hope 
that,  like  myself  in  devotion  to  a  friend  and  counsellor,  a  cheer 
may  leap  from  the  heart  of  all  lowans  for  so  true  and  good  a  man. 

Leaving  this  tribute  it  is  in  line  not  to  be  forgotten  that  our 
Free  School  Law  became  a  notice  to  the  world  of  rich  Iowa  on  an 
educational  march.  Farms  adjacent  to  school-houses  rose  rapidly 
in  value.  The  childless  were  solicitous  to  take  on  incumbrances, 
to  clothe  and  feed  those  whom  the  state  was  pledged  to  educate. 
Free  to  the  poor  as  air  and  sunshine  is  education  in  Iowa.  The 
friction  under  a  new  system,  and  the  burdens  of  a  state  legislative 
board  of  education,  brought  about  partial  repeal,  but  the  system 
has  grown  in  favor,  on  amendment,  until  the  fact  of  less  illiteracy 
than  any  state  in  our  Union  is  a  proud  statement,  and  one  so  well 
known  as  to  be  no  longer  mentioned  as  news  —  a  fact  cognate  to  a 
conservative  maxim  —  a  nation's  wealth  should  educate  its  youth 
rudimentally  for  good  citizenship. 

THE  EARLY  DAY. 

The  city  of  Des  Moines  in  1858,  with  no  such  paper  as  the 
Iowa  State  Register,  nor  gas,  water-works,  fine  church  buildings, 
only  chapels,  and  with  the  honors  of  a  state  capitol,  had  less  than 
eight  thousand  people,  over  against  its  sixty  thousand  in  1890. 
All  was  rude,  with  stumps  of  trees,  perilous  ravines  and  walks 
made  of  coal  slack.  There  were  boarding-houses  on  streets  indi 
cated  by  a  surveyor's  stake,  or  by  a  path  through  mud  of  various 
consistency,  according  to  the  weather,  in  which  were  planted  and 
lost  sundry  odd  overshoes  without  a  suggestion  of  a  search  there 
for.  It  is  no  legend  that  by  lanterns  and  blazed  trees  we  made 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  123 

our  way  at  night  near  Capitol  Square,  then  decked  with  a  grove  of 
second  growth.  The  song,  "Woodman  spare  that  tree/'  did  not 
prevent  the  chopping  a  sapling,  to  be  shouldered  by  moonlight  by 
residents  short  of  fuel ;  and  the  hitching  of  horses  by  countrymen 
mutilated  the  trees  to  such  a  degree  that,  in  one  of  the  most  practi 
cal  resolves  of  the  session,  I  asked  for  "a  plain,  cheap,  strong 
board  fence "  around  the  Capitol  Square.  Iron  savored  too  much 
of  extravagance  to  be  mentioned,  and  we  had  not  reached  the  lawn 
era  and  discarding  of  fences. 

DRINKING    USAGES    AND    LEGISLATION.  ^ 

It  was  the  spring  of  1858,  when  by  a  hasty  adjournment  the 
Des  Moines  valley  folks  were  able  to  return  to  their  homes  by  a 
steamboat,  the  last  of  those  exploits.  This  boat  would  not  tarry 
for  legislators,  in  fear  of  low  water  which  might  cause  the  steamer 
to  be  aground  before  night.  The  log-book  of  that  craft  did  not  dis 
close  all  the  perils  by  water,  from  failure  in  morally  educating  a 
pilot  and  a  captian,  said  to  be  quite  too  full  for  duty.  As  I  have 
learned,  the  officials  were  not  singular  in  inebriation,  for  there  was 
quite  a  return  cargo  in  fluids.  Here  a  confession  should  preface 
the  records  of  facts.  Most  of  the  public  men  at  that  time  drank 
beer.  It  was  on  the  dinner  table,  and  members  called  for  it  to 
treat  friends  without  regard  to  time  or  ceremony.  I  drank  it, 
soon  overcoming  an  aversion  to  its  bitter  taste.  The  lager  was  not 
deemed  intoxicating,  but,  with  hop  flavor,  a  welcome  tonic.  It 
was  only  by  age  and  excessive  use  that  effects  were  visible.  These 
were  drowsiness,  then  petulance  reaching  to  blows,  followed  by  the 
now  called  "beer  face"  and  aldermanic  corpulence.  Members 
grew  out  of  their  suits,  and  became  in  love  with  beverages  which 
prepared  the  way  for  decisive  legislation.  Native  wine  and  beer 
were  exempted  from  the  provisions  of  the  prohibitory  liquor  law. 
If,  as  said,  my  vote,  long  uncertain,  legalized  the  home  product, 
these  facts  must  be  my  vindication.  Of  the  common  beer  I  had 
drank  without  harm,  and  had  no  knowledge  of  the  lager  which 
Senator  Reuch,  a  fine  German  citizen  and  scholar,  assured  me  was 
not,  when  fresh,  an  intoxicant.  Then,  grape  raising  for  wine  was 
a  promising  industry,  to  furnish  a  substitute  for  whiskey  without 
imbruting  the  user,  if  pure  and  used  in  moderation.  It  was  the 
abuse  under  the  law,  and  adulteration,  which  gave  a  refuge  for  the 


124  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    TEARS. 

vilest  drinks  under  cover  of  a  beer  saloon.  This  made  a  demand 
for  strong  stimulants,  which  soon  exposed  our  relapse  from  a  high 
standard,  securing  an  affirmative  vote  for  constitutional  prohibi 
tion  in  1882. 

That  is  not  all.  The  war  cloud  was  gathering  blackness,  and, 
to  keep  the  Union  together,  it  was  necessary  to  have  all  the  free 
states  in  line  for  an  emergency.  Here  we  were  met  by  the  Ger 
mans,  protesting  that  they  were  made  criminals  by  a  harmless 
usage ;  and  the  condition  of  their  allegiance  to  the  party  of  free 
dom  was  an  adoption  of  the  wine  and  beer  clause.  The  national 
jpause  loomed  high,  and  Iowa  must  be  kept  in  line,  and  it  was  duty 
to  waive,  for  the  time,  a  sentiment  for  a  great  principle  like  the 
nationality  of  freedom.  Thus  the  millions  of  black  men  enslaved 
were  set  over  against  the  freemen  depraved  by  appetite.  Again  I 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  democrats,  who  appealed  to  my  temperance 
standard  as  a  bond  that  I  would  enhance  their  prospects  of  power 
by  voting  against  repeal.  No !  I  took  counsel  of  friends,  and  the 
call  to  duty  with  a  good  purpose,  however  great  the  mistake  in  the 
view  of  those  not  broadened  to  an  exigency  in  the  nation  before 
unknown,  and  which  may  never  have  a  parallel. 

That  I  was  under  ban  for  a  time,  on  account  of  my  vote,  and 
incurred  the  hate  of  the  whiskey  party  for  not  accepting  their 
beverage,  did  not  disturb  me.  Time  proved  that  however  great 
the  frauds  practiced  under  beer  and  wine  exemptions,  a  united 
loyal  party  in  Iowa  was  a  desideratum  linked  to  the  fate  of  the 
Union. 

Senator  Grimes  would  have  secured  for  me  on  Mr.  Lincoln's 
inauguration  an  honorable  post  abroad,  but  for  this  position  I  had 
no  taste,  and  accepted  an  appointment  as  special  agent  of  the  Post 
Office  department.  It  was  a  place  of  high  trust,  giving  large  con 
trol  in  Chicago  and  supervision  in  Iowa  and  Minnesota,  allowing 
brief  periods  at  my  home  for  writing  and  in  care  of  business  mat 
ters.  It  was  a  congenial  service,  in  the  company  of  gentlemen, 
and  of  aid  to  localities  as  to  increase  of  mail  routes  and  lessening 
the  purloining  of  money  letters,  sent  to  meet  taxes  in  our  new 
counties.  Indirectly,  I  encouraged  enlistments  of  volunteers, 
spoke  at  company  departures  and  in  churches,  to  fan  the  fires  of 
patriotism  too  feebly  burning  in  many  localities.  Home  business 
was  neglected;  ploughed  fields  were  left  to  weeds,  and  in  Franklin 
county  where  I  had  laid  out  a  town,  there  was  only  stagnation 


REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY  TEAKS.        125 

after  every  man  fit  for  a  soldier  had  gone,  with  a  like  decimation 
in  the  county. 

GOING   TO    CONGRESS. 

This  was  not  an  unworthy  or  vain  ambition,  and  the  candidacy 
was  not  a  draft  on  energy  or  purse  to  a  considerable  degree  —  two 
dollars  and  forty  cents  was  the  cash  outlay.  I  had  no  press  as  an 
organ,  nor  friends  at  the  convention  only  as  they  came  on  their 
own  charges,  however  they  returned. 

About  fifty  ballots  were  required  to  make  a  nomination. 
Judge  William  M.  Stone  of  Knoxville,  an  editor,  coming  to  the  lib 
erals  on  the  know-nothing  wave  and  anti-slavery  issue  (since  gov 
ernor,  and  now  holding  a  high  official  position),  was  ready  for  a  sac 
rifice  on  the  nomination  altar.  Rush  Clark,  later  M.  C.,  years  ago 
crossing  to  join  the  "pale  nations",  was  speaker  of  the  legislature, 
and  by  report  had  mapped  out  a  district  favorable  to  his  aspira 
tions  and  was  a  candidate  on  the  list  to  stay.  Attorney-General 
Samuel  A.  Rice,  of  Oskaloosa,  readily  enlisted  his  legal  brothers, 
and  was  every  way  equipped  to  win  that  upon  which,  after  due  dil 
igence  in  a  well-cultivated  field,  he  had  set  his  heart.  There  only 
seemed  wanting  unity  and  a  cordial  support  by  the  Mahaska  dele 
gation,  in  which  was  found  the  Quaker  element,  not  willing  to  be 
counted  before  courted.  Many  a  true  man  has  lost  by  too  much 
reserve  in  a  crisis.  The  peacemakers  of  another  day  were  pleased 
with  nothing  less  than  a  candidate  without  caution  in  entertaining 
John  Brown,  and  ready  to  face  the  issues.  It  was  in  vain  that  I 
urged  my  friends  voting  to  change  for  Rice,  a  personal  friend,  and 
a  reliable  ardent  patriot.  The  convention  dispersed.  I  did  not 
sleep  until  I  had  made  a  journey  to  Iowa  City,  and  had  secured  a 
pledge  from  Gov.  Kirkwood  that  my  friend  should  be  made  Col 
onel,  as  he  was  of  the  Thirty-third  Infantry,  doing  fine  service  as  an 
organizer,  but  receiving  a  wound  in  battle  of  which  he  died.  He 
was  early  promoted  a  general ;  and  in  mortuary  service  and  remem- 
berance  he  was  extolled  as  a  citizen  of  great  worth  in  peace,  and  a 
hero  in  war  for  the  Union. 

Next  in  order,  the  candidate  must  challenge  his  opponent  to 
discuss  the  issues.  Mine  was  Henry  M.  Martyii  of  Marengo,  a 
member  of  our  legislature,  with  a  fair  democratic  record,  and  a 
lawyer  of  repute,  shrewd,  and  a  popular  orator.  Douglass  was  his 


126  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

idol;  and  much  did  he  inspire  the  voters  to  put  down  the  rebell 
ion  by  resolves,  yet  was  chary  in  advice  on  enlistments,  not  yet 
certain  whether  the  war  was  waged  for  the  double  purpose  of  abol 
ishing  slavery  and  perpetuating  the  republican  party.  McClellan 
was  his  ideal  soldier,  as  he  was  my  aversion.  Fremont  I  more 
than  tolerated  in  his  order,  while  relegated  to  the  family  of  fanat 
ics  by  my  opponent. 

The  warning  conditional  proclamation  of  emancipation  by  Mr. 
Lincoln  of  the  twenty-second  of  September,  1862,  giving  the  insur 
gents  to  the  first  of  January  for  reflection  and  allegiance,  was  the 
signal  for  sharp  debate,  bringing  fire  from  oratorical  flint  and 
steel.  I  advocated  the  arming  of  blacks,  and  predicted  what  came 
to  break  the  shackles.  We  were  crossing  the  country  together  in 
a  carriage  when  a  stage  driver  brought  out  a  telegram  with  a 
message.  It  was  to  Mr.  Marty n  conviction  as  strong  as  proofs  of 
Holy  Writ  that  war  was  to  enslave  the  South,  and  Lincoln  had 
destroyed  the  Union.  "All  of  which,"  said  he,  "assures  my  elec 
tion."  From  that  time  on  there  was  no  lack  of  crowds,  a  sharp 
issue  and  cheers  by  excited  partisans. 

His  role  as  a  candidate  was  to  prevent  enlistments  in  a  "  negro 
war",  and  restore  the  Union  as  it  was.  I  plead  that  a  man  who 
could  take  as  good  sight  under  tufts  of  wool  as  under  a  crown  of 
blonde,  should  spare  our  own  race,  while  the  black  man  could  gain 
partial  redress  for  injuries  and  make  liberty  and  not  slavery  na 
tional  after  January,  1863.  The  Fourth  District  had  sent  a  larger 
number  of  soldiers  into  the  field  than  any  in  the  Union,  save  that 
embracing  Chicago,  and  we  both  sought  to  secure  the  soldiers'  vote, 
to  be  taken  in  camps  by  commissioners.  Appeals  to  prejudice  did 
not  move  those  in  camp,  pining  for  action  and  an  early  close  of  the 
war,  and  I  received  about  four-fifths  of  the  whole  number  of  votes, 
while  of  the  home  vote  I  lacked  an  election,  but  counting  the 
soldier  vote  had  fourteen  hundred  majority.  Here  appeared  a 
travesty  of  loyalty  to  the  soldiers  by  a  denial  of  their  right  to 
vote,  although  Mr.  Martyn  as  a  legislator  helped  frame  the  Iowa 
law.  It  was  a  bitter  contest  up  to  the  affirmative  decision  of  its 
legality  by  the  supreme  court,  and  a  contest  in  Congress  which 
added  nothing  to  the  credit  of  my  opponent,  not  even  securing  the 
salary  of  a  contestant  as  by  the  latter  usages.  A  favorable  issue 
of  the  war  placed  under  the  ban  one  well  endowed  for  public  serv 
ice,  and  for  years,  in  the  city  of  Davenport,  a  lawyer  of  good 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  127 

practice.  By  the  casualty  of  a  broken  limb,  near  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  his  life  was  ended,  calling  out  many  tributes  to  a  gen 
erous  heart. 

In  1864  I  was  again  nominated  for  Congress,  and,  without  an 
effort,  or  a  possible  ground  of  contest  like  that  before,  my  major 
ity  was  six  thousand  votes.  My  opponent  shall  be  nameless,  for, 
however  convivial  in  practice  and  disloyal  in  denouncing  the  war 
a  failure,  he  rose  to  a  high  social  plane  of  life  as  a  Christian  min 
ister  in  another  state,  and  recast  his  political  creed,  regretting  both 
his  infirmities  and  the  evil  of  disloyol  association. 

I  lacked  but  a  few  votes  of  a  third  nomination,  which  was  not 
sought,  for  I  kept  my  place  at  the  capitol  that  there  might  be  no 
partiality  to  a  contestant.  Washington  air  I  never  liked,  causing 
seasons  of  protracted  illness  ;  and,  the  war  over,  with  the  constitu 
tion  amended,  retiring  brought  rest  and  pleasant  and  profitable 
home  and  public  occupation,  of  which  I  make  full  mention  later. 
Politics  alone  can  engage  the  ambitious  only,  except  in  a  great 
formative  and  war  crisis.  Then  there  comes  the  reward,  and  the 
just  pride  in  recounting  one's  part  in  framing  laws  that  posterity 
commends,  and  giving  authority  to  those  who  shall  be  their  faith 
ful  executors.  It  was  enough  that  I  had  seen  the  Congress  of 
1850,  with  later  ones,  in  the  midst  of  the  taunts  and  excesses  in 
debate  before  traitors  had  executed  their  warlike  threats,  and  the 
still  later  war  Congress,  under  the  rule  of  a  party  charged  with 
duties  in  which  I  shared,  and  under  leaders  before  held  in  aversion. 

It  is  an  incident  to  this  narration  that  I  became  enlisted  as 
president  in  a  railway  north  and  south,  to  bring  us  coal  and  lum 
ber  ;  and  that  the  revulsion  of  1857  brought  a  paralysis  in  busi 
ness,  and  arrested  railway  building  and  public  enterprise,  while 
clouding  with  disastrous  defeat  most  laudable  schemes.  The 
hard  times  in  1857  were  a  reality.  I  recall  that  on  my  journeys, 
with  the  owner  of  farms  it  was  common  to  roast  corn  for  dinner 
and  pay  the  lady  ten  cents  for  seasoning,  with  use  of  dishes. 
Coffee  gave  way  on  our  tables  to  a  substitute  made  of  rye,  sweet 
ened  with  sorghum.  Sugar  was  a  luxury,  as  was  fine  flour,  when 
wheat  brought  the  farmer  but  forty  cents  a  bushel.  Taxes  were 
unpaid  for  years,  drawing  heavy  penalties,  while  hundreds  of  thou 
sands  of  acres  were  abandoned  to  tax-title  purchasers.  There  was 
brooding  a  financial  cloud  of  inky  blackness  —  no  credit  and  poor 
money,  up  to  the  mad  treason  of  1860.  Being  "  land  poor "  was 


128  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY    TEARS. 

not  a  figure  of  speech. ;  and  to  introduce  sheep  was  my  device,  and 
let  the  plough  rest.  In  the  meantime  occurred  a  perhaps  ludicrous 
interlude  in  my  pioneer  life,  which  may  be  here  narrated. 

HOW    AND    WHY    I    BECAME    A    LAWYER. 

On  going  to  Iowa  there  was  much  legal  business  at  hand,  mak 
ing  bonds,  deeds  and  special  contracts,  and  I  scouted  the  old  forms 
as  long,  wordy,  without  reason,  and  their  continuance  a  reproach 
to  the  age.  At  a  social  evening  gathering  of  court  lawyers,  about 
1858,  Judge  Stone  being  present,  I  ridiculed  the  useless  forms,  and 
was  answered,  "  That  would  do  for  an  unprofessional,"  etc. 

Attorney-General  Samuel  A.  Kice,  afterward  Brigadier-Gen 
eral,  who  died  of  his  wounds,  said  I  was  in  the  main  right,  and,  if 
I  so  wished,  he  would  propose  me  for  admission  to  the  Iowa  Bar. 
That  was  what  I  meditated  as  a  convenience  in  the  future,  for  I 
did  own  a  Blackstone  and  the  code,  drawn  as  a  senator,  and  in 
discussion  of  the  session  laws  had  often  heard  what  was  "common 
law,"  enforced  as  very  uncommon  law  in  perversion  of  statutes. 
The  learned  young  chaps  who  mouthed  often  great  words  which 
Blackstone  seldom  used,  were  eager  for  such  game  in  the  examina 
tion  as  I  promised  to  be.  On  my  name  being  presented  for  admis 
sion  the  court  appointed  our  first  lawyer  chairman  of  the  com 
mittee,  General  Kice.  He  had  but  few  elementary  questions, 
while  the  committee  boys  seemed  stirred  with  deep  excitement, 
asking  questions,  and  I  gave  the  aptest  burlesque  replies  at  com 
mand,  which  they  hinted  were  not  plain ;  and  I  fell  back  on  the 
privilege  of  counsel  that  I  had  high  authority  for  the  opinion  that 
the  "use  of  language  was  to  conceal  thoughts".  In  the  next  resort 
I  availed  myself  of  the  usage  of  the  court,  "reserving  an  opinion" 
until  consulting  the  authorities ;  or  I  bandied  the  eager  young 
gentleman  with  an  answer  in  Latin,  which  he  said  he  did  not 
understand,  to  which  I  replied  I  did  not  doubt  it  —  an  easy  extin 
guisher.  After  long  and  mutual  merriment,  Rice  in  seriousness 
came  to  the  rescue,  saying,  "  The  lawyer  determined  his  fitness  by 
taking  good  cases,  aod  honorably  prosecuting  them,  and  he  was  sat 
isfied  to  report  on  my  giving  a  satisfactory  answer  to  one  constitu 
tional  question,  viz. :  Whether  in  my  reading  and  reflection  it  is  in 
violation  of  our  Constitution  to  make  a  practical  and  personal 
appropriation  of  bivalves  at  this  season  of  the  year?"  On  a  neg- 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  129 

ative  answer  to  this  question,  he  felt  called  upon  to  recommend 
an  admission  as  following  a  well-established  precedent  if  not  stat 
ute  law.  Of  course,  a  supper  was  eaten  after  admission,  by  as 
hilarious  a  company  as  ever  sits  down,  wanting  the  usual  fluid 
excitement. 

There  soon  came  to  me  two  offers  of  law  partnership,  and  the 
proffer  of  collections,  which  were  declined.  Once  a  draft  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  came  just  at  the  right  time.  I  was  coun 
sel  on  the  right  side  of  the  v  largest  case  in  our  county,  and  it 
is  not  vain  for  me  to  mention  that  I  secured  a  proposal  to  the 
county  of  settlement  of  railway  -indebtedness,  which  would  have 
saved  us  more  than  fifty  thousand  dollars  had  not  the  advice 
of  lawyers  in  ignorance  or  with  motives  I  will  not  name,  been 
followed. 

At  that  time  admission  to  the  Bar  of  course  was  a  burlesque, 
but,  written  in  the  briefest  language,  my  legal  papers  have  stood 
the  test,  while  many  words  have  been  fruitful  of  litigation, 
whereof  only  the  hungry  lawyers  were  gainers.  A  fortunate  inter 
pretation  of  contracts  in  the  legal  affairs  of  the  Central  Iowa  Rail 
way  saved  thousands  of  dollars  to  the  company,  and,  before  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  state  and  the  Supreme  Court  at  Washington, 
I  became  a  practitioner  in  matters  of  personal  interest  leading  to 
equity,  and  I  found  mingled  pleasure  and  success.  The  cases 
which  I  have  caused  quietly  to  be  compromised  were  many.  The 
first  device  was  to  subdue  the  temper,  and  the  second  to  show  that 
success  even,  in  many  cases,  involves  friction  and  pecuniary  loss* 
This  required  delicate  treatment  to  bring  victims  from  the  coils  of 
counsel  who  had  more  regard  for  notoriety  and  fee  tha,n  for 
justice. 

There  may  be  honor,  which  I  doubt,  among  thieves,  but  little 
when  robust  clients  are  to  be  plucked  or  a  pound  of  flesh  taken 
regardless  of  blood.  A  class  of  idle  loungers  stir  up  canines  on 
the  corner  for  a  fight,  nursing  brutality ;  a  class  of  pettifoggers  in 
legal  business  stir  up  litigation  more  degrading  than  any  brute 
warfare,  and  then  laugh  at  their  dupes,  traducing  the  judge  as  the 
author  of  defeat,  or  a  jury  which  they  irreverently  send  to  another 
and  warmer  realm.  Honorable  and  strictly  honest  counsel  will 
make  our  court  dockets  slim,  for  there  is  not  in  the  West  legiti 
mate  business  for  one  out  of  five  of  the  lawyers,  seeking  practice 
by  technical  arts  and  fictitious  pleas  too  long  tolerated.  Business 


130  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

demands  but  few,  plain  words,  and  I  hold  in  high  honor  those  who 
study  peace,  and  practice  in  emergencies  with  fidelity.  Bribery  in 
official  station  so  often  talked  of,  I  have  never  known,  but  legal 
collusion  in  secret,  and  open  words  like  daggers,  both  of  which 
must  excite  disgust  even  in  the  lower  regions.  Such  shysters  are 
in  love  with  grand  juries,  and  can  coach  or  corner  a  witness  on 
the  stand  with  grimace  and  snakish  eye.  Filth  to  them  is  like 
nutritious  food ;  they  are  crazy  on  constitutions,  and  in  spasms  of 
assumed  virtue  on  a  human  suggestion  not  written  in  law.  They 
have  no  God,  nor  one  fit  to  be  written  with  a  small  g.  Human 
gad-flies  — !  Vale  ! 

My  examination  for  the  Bar  reminds  me  of  the  early  Oxford 
examinations  for  degrees.  Professor  Bryce,  addressing  the  stu 
dents  of  Iowa  College,  alluded  to  an  eminent  scholar  years  ago,  not 
yet  tested  in  his  literary  talent.  While  a  candidate  he  was  asked 
but  one  question,  and  that  was,  who  founded  Oxford  University. 
His  reply  was,  "I  am  not  certain,  I  think  it  was  King  Alfred." 
His  answer  was  wrong,  but  he  obtained  the  degree,  as  I  did  an 
admission  to  the  Bar,  without  regard  to  qualification.  Thirty 
years  have  changed  the  conditions  of  admission  to  legal  practice. 


CHAPTEE  IX. 

The  War  Congress — 1863-5  —  A  Seat  Episode — Wilson,  Kasson, 
Price,  Allison,  Hublard,  E.  C.  Ingersoll,  Lovejoy,  Henry  Winter 
Davis,  Oakes  Ames,  President  Hayes,  President  Garfield,  Col- 
fax,  Blaine  and  others — The  Opposition  Leaders,  Hendricks, 
Voorhees,  Brooks,  Wood,  Cox,  etc.  —  War  Days  at  Home. 

I  TOOK  my  seat  in  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress  assembled  in 
December,  1863.  It  was  charged  with  the  gravest  duties  ever 
intrusted  to  statesmen  of  any  country  or  age.  Gigantic  war  car 
ried  on  in  new  methods,  and  a  financial  policy  involving  thousands 
of  millions  of  dollars,  were  of  equal  concern  —  all  related  to  the 
issue  of  battles.  There  was  the  arming  of  the  blacks,  the  act  of 
emancipation,  and  confiscation  —  topics  of  stern  debate  and  of 
momentous  import,  watched  as  we  were  by  jealous  enemies  abroad, 
and  more  exposed  to  dangers  from  much  of  the  professed  loyalty 
at  home,  which  the  sequel  proved  was  for  the  defense  and  restora 
tion  of  a  disloyal  party  to  place  and  power. 

A    SEAT    EPISODE. 

I  must  give  in  reminiscence  how  I  came  to  be  favored  by  a 
number  of  the  chief  actors  in  this  grand  epoch.  There  is  a  great 
choice  in  seats  in  the  Representative  Hall,  which  was  built  with 
regard  to  show,  rather  than  business  and  acoustic  qualities.  Those 
in  the  front  are  disliked,  and  those  in  the  rear  are  obnoxious  on 
account  of  distance  and  intrusions  by  a  cloak-room  lobby,  where 
there  is  noise  and  confusion. 

This  is  the  method  on  an  occasion  to  which  there  is  attached 
a  deep  interest  by  the  old  members,  who  know  the  advantages  of 
a  good  location  to  hear  readily  and  gain  an  audience  in  times  of 
excitement.  The  names  of  all  the  members  are  written  on  slips  of 


132  EEMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

paper  and  placed  in  a  box,  from  which  a  blinded  page  draws  the 
names,  and  the  early  called  get  the  choicest  seats.  It  was  my  for 
tune  to  draw  third,  and  I  chose  the  best  locality  in  the  Ways  and 
Means  circle  next  to  Mr.  Stevens'  old  seat,  long  held  by  him — the 
Nestor  of  the  House.  Nearing  the  end  of  the  called  list,  a  mem 
ber  from  New  York,  amid  hisses,  took  Mr,  Stevens'  long  reserved 
seat,  saying,  "This  is  a  body  of  equals."  Nearly  the  last  member 
to  draw  was  Mr.  Stevens,  and  all  but  the  very  rear  were  taken, 
from  which  he  could  not  be  heard,  besides  being  unfit  locally  for 
the  leader  of  the  House. 

Soon  the  feeble  old  man,  with  a  club-foot  came  hobbling  up 
the  aisle.  As  he  passed  along,  I  stepped  out  and  touched  his 
shoulder,  saying,  "  This  is  the  seat  for  you,  which  I  yield  to  the 
venerable."  "No,  I  cannot  take  it,  for  it  is  worth  more  than 
money."  But,  without  rudeness,  I  placed  him  in  the  seat  aided 
in  entreaty  by  his  old  friends.  Though  deserving  no  credit,  I  was 
as  much  praised  as  the  other  was  blamed,  whose  greed  got  the 
better  of  his  judgment.  I  call  no  name,  but  he  lost  caste  —  was 
never  listened  to  without  a  private  gibe  or  a  severe  press  notice. 
He  failed  of  renomination  and  sank  out  of  political  view  by  this 
trivial  act  —  if  nothing  else,  a  political  blunder,  next  to  a  crime. 

A  bright  page  found  me  a  good,  overlooked  seat,  and  the 
acquaintance  made  with  the  old  Commoner  was  of  more  value  than 
one  term  in  Congress.  I  had  only  to  hint  to  Mr.  Stevens  to  learn 
the  order  of  bills,  with  the  privilege  of  amendment  and  frequent 
yielding  of  time  in  debate.  He  said,  "  If  we  live,  time  will  bring 
us  side  by  side  in  the  next  Congress."  My  good  fortune  in  sitting 
by  Mr.  Stevens  in  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress,  to  be  referred  to 
later,  further  illustrates  his  character. 

From  Iowa  we  were  all  new  members,  save  James  F.  Wilson  — 
now  and  for  eight  years  United  States  Senator.  He  was  the  young 
est  member  of  the  great  Committee,  the  Judiciary,  in  a  previous 
Congress,  also  at  its  foot.  In  the  new  Congress,  Mr.  Wilson  was 
the  only  republican  returned  of  the  former  cast,  but  there  were 
older  lawyers  aspiring  to  the  chairmanship,  and  with  others  I  did 
not  choose  a  speaker  without  an  assurance  that  our  colleague  was 
not  to  be  jumped.  Mr.  Wilson  became  a  leader,  while  his  col 
leagues  were  Judges  Bingham,  Williams,  and  Ex-Governor  Bout- 
well,  who  served  in  this  capacity  with  honor  during  the  impeach 
ment  trial  of  Andrew  Johnson.  While  this  may  be  no  time  to 


MR.    GRIXNKLL   \VHEX   IN   CONGRESS. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY    YEARS.  133 

praise  the  living,  it  will  serve  my  purpose  later  in  showing  the 
high  regard  of  President  Grant  for  Mr.  Wilson,  who  was  offered  a 
cabinet  position ;  and  indirectly  my  interest  in  a  person  truly  the 
pride  of  his  state,  whose  history  he  has  adorned  while  declining 
three  places. 

John  A.  Kasson  of  Iowa,  then  in  the  House,  has  since  been 
known  in  high  rank  of  public  trusts,  negotiating  postal  treaties, 
and  his  career  culminating  in  diplomatic  service  to  Berlin  and 
elsewhere.  Hiram  Price,  also  with  more  than  national  fame,  was 
transferred  from  Congress  to  the  important  post  of  Commissioner 
of  Indian  Affairs,  rendering  great  service  to  the  country  and  to  our 
dusky  wards  of  the  reservations.  William  B.  Allison,  still  more 
widely  known,  and  serving  near  three  terms  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  declined  cabinet  position  under  both  Garfield  and  Harri 
son;  he  was  strongly  put  forward  as  a  presidential  candidate  in 
1888,  and  holds  no  second  place  in  our  Senate.  Nor  can  we  for 
get  A.  W?  Hubbard,  who,  depressed  in  service  by  ill  health,  died 
some  years  since  with  a  most  honorable  record.  Sioux  City  was 
his  home,  which  he  did  not  live  to  see  rise  to  the  measure  of  his 
prediction ;  it  is  now  the  refined  grand  city  of  growth  and  the  com 
mercial  metropolis  of  our  rich  new  North-west.  It  was  a  harmoni 
ous  delegation  wif\  divers  tastes  but  well  assigned  on  committees, 
for  peculiar  service  that  gave  it  reputation  as  the  strong  "Hawk- 
eye  team".  I  was  on  the  committee  on  Post  Offices  and  post 
roads,  which  gave  me  a  desired  opportunity  to  serve  my  district, 
long  neglected ;  also  on  other  committees  of  importance. 

On  the  death  of  Owen  Love  joy  of  Illinois,  who  had  earned  his 
way  near  the  head  of  one  of  the  most  desirable  committees,  that 
of  Territories,  I  was  appointed  to  the  vacancy,  a  compliment 
which  I  had  not  earned  by  any  real  service,  but  made  on  the 
request  of  Mr.  Thaddeus  Stevens.  Mr.  Eben  C.  Ingersoll,  a 
brother  of  the  since  well-known  Robert  G.  Ingersoll,  was  Mr. 
Lovejoy's  successor  from  Illinois.  He  was  much  depressed  by  the 
routine  before  him,  in  not  finding  a  proper  place  on  committees. 
I  resigned  in  his  favor,  in  honor  of  the  district  and  its  representa 
tion,  and  in  aid  of  the  successor  of  my  good  friend.  I  received 
the  following  letter,  hereafter  mentioned  in  criticism  of  Robert  G. 
Ingersoll. 


134  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

My  Dear  Sir: 

I  am  informed  by  my  brother,  lonely  and  disgusted  with  his  congressional  life 
on  the  tail  of  committees,  with  nothing  to  do,  that  you  have  come  to  his  relief.  It 
is  a  high  place  he  fills  by  your  resignation,  he  tells  me.  If  I  have  judged  Congress 
made  up  of  mortals  akin  to  the  lower  animals  in  pushing  for  the  full  end  of  the 
trough,  I  make  an  honorable  exception.  I  thank  you,  and  we  may  meet,  when  it 
will  be  a  pleasure,  if  in  my  power,  to  reciprocate  the  act  of  a  gentleman. 

Yours  Truly, 

EGBERT  G.  INGERSOLL. 

HON.  J.  B.  GRINNELL,  M.  C. 


OWEN    LOVEJOY. 

On  the  personnel  of  that  House,  I  first  name  the  lamented  Love- 
joy.  We  were  in  sympathy,  pioneers,  farmers,  radicals.  He  was 
the  boldest  of  congressmen,  fiery,  eloquent,  invincible  in  debate, 
an  historic  character,  with  no  stain  upon  his  reputation.  At  the 
congressional  mortuary  services  in  these  decades  there  never  has 
been  shown  more  of  emotion  and  the  grief  of  colleagues  than  on 
the  occasion  of  his  death.  Even  Pendleton,  one  of  the  bulwarks 
of  Democracy,  surpassed  radical  comrades  in  warmth  of  eulogy. 
The  following  was  reported  in  the  Globe — one  of  the  brief  eulogies 
011  the  deceased  statesman  in  the  House  of  Representatives : 

MR.  GRINNELL.  Mr.  Speaker:  I  have  just  returned  from  a  long  journey,  and 
it  is  only  since  I  came  into  the  Hall  this  morning  that  I  received  an  intimation 
that  I  was  to  speak  on  this  mournful  occasion.  My  few  words  shall  be  the  sympa 
thetic  utterances  of  a  mourning  friend  rather  than  those  of  a  classic  eulogist.  I 
had  the  honor  of  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  deceased,  having  shared  the 
bounteous  hospitality  of  his  western  home,  and  at  his  bedside  in  this  city  I  strove 
to  drink  in  the  inspiration  of  his  spirit. 

But  a  few  weeks  since,  in  his  sick-room,  I  expressed  fears  for  his  recovery.  I 
saw  the  tears  course  down  his  manly  cheek  as  he  said,  "Ah!  God's  will  be  done, 
but  I  have  been  laboring,  voting  and  praying  for  twenty  years  that  I  might  see 
the  great  day  of  freedom  which  is  so  near  and  which  I  hope  God  will  let  me  live  to 
rejoice  in.  I  want  a  vote  on  my  bill  for  the  destruction  of  slavery,  root  and 
branch."  He  saw  the  sun  of  national  liberty,  but  in  its  rising,  when  he  hoped 
to  gaze  on  it  with  raptures  in  its  midiioon  splendor ;  but  mysteriously  has  God 
called  him  above  the  storm-clouds  of  war,  bringing  rest  to  his  weary  spirit,  and 
new  vision,  with  an  exchange  of  the  sorrows  of  earth  for  the  joys  of  heaven.  A 
Christian  and  a  hero  has  gone  home,  where  there  will  be  a  multitude  to  welcome 
and  no  one  wronged  to  confront  him. 

As  I  review  his  eventful  life  I  am  constrained  to  believe  that  had  he  died 
thirty  years  ago  the  world  would  have  said,  We  have  lost  a  promising  scholar. 
Had  his  decease  been  twenty  years  since  he  would  have  been  called  a  fanatic  by 
almost  universal  acclaim.  Had  he  left  the  world  ten  years  since,  the  narrow  circle 
in  which  he  moved  would  have 'felt  the  loss  of  an  obscure  free-soil  candidate  for 
Congress  and  a  Congregational  minister.  But  what  have  ten  years  of  noble,  heroic 
devotion  to  freedom  achieved !  The  clergyman,  by  leaving  his  flock  for  the  prom- 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  135 

ising  field  which  invited  his  labors,  is  justified.  A  man  and  a  citizen  before  a 
minister,  he  proved  that  his  politics  were  consistent  with  and  not  derogatory  to 
Christian  and  ministerial  character,  following  the  example  of  Mayhew,  Cooper 
and  Witherspoon  of  our  early  days,  who  were  not  more  eminent  in  the  pulpit  than 
learned  and  useful  as  legislators,  neither  of  whom  made  apology  for  a  change  of 
vocation  when  they  might  speak  for  a  nation  in  the  forum,  and  espouse  the  cause 
of  liberty  for  the  world.  Our  friend  loved  peace,  and  accepted  the  arbitrament  of 
the  sword  only  as  a  dire  necessity.  In  his  holy  hate  for  the  rebellion,  and  slavery, 
its  cause,  he  was  — 

"  For  the  peace  which  rings  out  from  the  cannon's  throat, 

And  the  suasion  of  shot  and  shell, 

Till  rebellion's  spirit  is  trampled  down 

To  the  depths  of  its  kindred  hell." 

Then  for  this  country  there  was  the  ideal  of  the  church.,  "beautiful  as  Tirzah, 
comely  as  Jerusalem,  and  terrible  as  any  army  with  banners,"  to  which  he  was 
consecrated.  The  witnesses  of  his  early  and  later  devotion  made  him  as  eyes  to 
the  blind,  feet  to  the  lame ;  and  the  cause  which  he  knew  not  he  searched  out. 
His  home  was  his  castle,  where  he  gave  assurance  of  shelter  and  defense  to  the 
escaped  from  the  southern  prison-houses,  who  were  thousands,  and  he  caused  the 
widow's  heart  to  sing  for  joy,  while  the  blessing  of  many  ready  to  perish  fell  on 
him. 

Mr.  Speaker,  it  is  too  early  to  pronounce  the  eulogy  on  our  deceased  brother. 
Respicefmem:  wait  till  the  ripening  of  that  of  which  he  sowed  the  seed.  Give 
time  to  gather  up  the  great  thoughts  first  expressed  in  the  log  school-house,  which 
gathered  volume,  re-echoed  from  the  pulpit,  and,  taken  up  by  the  telegraph  and  the 
press  as  from  the  statesman,  true  to  his  convictions,  and  the  fearless  unapproached 
orator.  The  gloryof  his  life  and  the  grandeur  of  his  character  will  be  unappre 
ciated  until  the  last  shackle  falls  from  the  slave  and  the  muse  of  history  asks  for 
those  who  were  of  the  first  to  strike  for  the  poor  and  end  their  life  with  humane 
and  Christian  devotion. 

It  is  well  expressed,  Owen  Lovejoy  was  no  ordinary  man.  In  the  stern  period 
of  our  history,  breasting  prejudice  and  obloquy,  he  rose  to  that  proud  distinction 
to  which  the  impassioned  eloquence  of  this  morning  is  a  fitting  accord.  His 
marked  characteristics  were  evinced  in  firmness  like  his  native  mountains,  and 
there  was  a  scope  of  mind  which  seemed  to  borrow  breadth  and  beauty  of  imagery 
from  the  expanse  of  his  prairie  home,  carpeted  with  floral  decoration.  Above  all, 
he  died  a  Christian.  With  more  than  the  honors  of  a  conquerer  will  his  dust  rest 
in  sepulture  among  the  people  by  whom  he  was  so  ardently  loved,  and  his  soul, 
ascending  to  his  God,  would,  if  it  might  speak  to  us,  counsel,  Love  your  country, 
remember  her  despised  poor,  and  if  you  would  rescue  anything  from  the  wreck  of 
time,  lay  it  up  in  God. 

It  should  be  added  that  Mr.  Lovejoy  made  the  boldest  replies 
to  the  maligners  of  President  Lincoln;  and  the  art  of  standing 
undaunted  in  front  of  a  howling,  profane  crowd  of  rebels,  placed 
him  high  in  a  niche  in  "Freedom's  Holy  Fane".  He  is  remem 
bered  still  for  his  bill  which  was  to  stamp  out  slavery,  root  and 
branch,  not  waiting  for  the  arbitrament  of  war,  or  constitutional 
fiats  in  amendments. 


136  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

Henry  Winter  Davis  of  Maryland,  was  the  great  orator.  He 
had  shocked  even  Chicago  by  his  Fourth  of  July  oration,  declaring 
that  honor,  safety  and  statesmanship  would  give  the  black  man  the 
vote  everywhere*  under  the  flag.  This  gentleman  was  the  chairman 
of  the  committee  of  foreign  affairs.  He  suddenly  died  in  1865  — 
too  early  for  his  state  and  the  nation.  He  was,  by  the  universal 
verdict,  the  popular,  magnetic  speaker  of  Congress.  His  father 
was  a  clergyman,  and  the  son  had  enjoyed  the  best  classical  train 
ing  as  a  student,  and  the  discipline  of  the  professor.  .Every 
subject  he  handled  was  with  the  grace  of  a  gentleman  and  the  cul 
tivation  of  an  orator.  His  true  picture  hangs  near  me,  the  type 
of  a  brave,  restive  agitator,  having  faith  in  the  triumph  of  the 
noblest  principles  and  of  the  Christian  religion.  His  encounters 
with  General  Frank  P.  Blair,  jr.,  a  soldier,  attested  his  prowess ; 
and  his  sad  demise  brought  mourning  to  all  the  higher  circles  of 
civilians. 

His  speech  of  April  llth,  1864,  was  the  notable  effort  of  the 
time,  and  my  best  tribute  to  his  genius  will  be  found  in  this  quo 
tation,  ending  in  a  climax  —  a  plea  against  all  compromises  with 
rebels : 


"It  is  because  the  people  of  the  United  States,  rising  to  the  height  of  the 
occasion,  dedicated  this  generation  to  the  sword,  and  pouring  out  the  hlood  of  their 
children  as  of  no  account,  and  vowing  before  high  Heaven  that  there  should  be  no 
end  to  this  conflict  but  ruin  absolute  or  absolute  triumph,  that  we  now  are  what 
we  are ;  that  the  banner  of  the  Republic,  still  pointing  onward,  floats  proudly  in 
the  face  of  the  enemy ;  that  vast  regions  are  reduced  to  obedience  to  the  laws,  and 
that  a  great  host  in  armed  array  now  presses  with  steady  step  into  the  dark  regions 
of  the  rebellion.  It  is  only  by  the  earnest  and  abiding  resolution  of  the  people 
that,  whatever  shall  be  our  fate,  it  shall  be  grand  as  the  American  nation,  worthy 
of  that  Republic  which  first  trod  the  path  of  empire  and  made  no  peace  but  under 
the  banners  of  victory,  that  the  American  people  will  survive  in  history.  And 
that  will  save  us.  "We  shall  succeed,  and  not  fail.  I  have  an  abiding  confidence 
in  the  firmness,  the  patience,  the  endurance  of  the  American  people ;  and,  having 
vowed  to  stand  in  history  on  the  great  resolve  to  accept  of  nothing  but  victory  or 
ruin,  victory  is  ours.  And  if  with  such  heroic  resolve  we  fall,  we  fall  with  honor, 
and  transmit  the  name  of  liberty,  committed  to  our  keeping,  untarnished,  to  go 
down  to  future  generations.  The  historian  of  our  decline  and  fall,  contemplating 
the  ruins  of  the  last  great  Republic,  and  drawing  from  its  fate  lessons  of  wisdom 
on  the  waywardness  of  men,  shall  drop  a  tear  as  he  records  with  sorrow  the  vain 
heroism  of  that  people  who  dedicated  and  sacrificed  themselves  to  the  cause  of 
freedom,  and  by  their  example  will  keep  alive  her  worship  in  the  hearts  of  men  till 
happier  generations  shall  learn  to  walk  in  her  paths.  Yes,  sir,  if  we  must  fall,  let 
our  last  hours  be  stained  by  no  weakness.  If  we  must  fall,  let  us  stand  amid  the 
crash  of  the  falling  Republic  and  be  buried  in  its  ruins,  so  that  history  may  take 
note  that  men  lived  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  worthy  of  a  better 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  137 

fate,  but  chastised  by  God  for  the  sins  of  their  forefathers.  Let  the  ruins  of  the 
Kepublic  remain  to  testify  to  the  latest  generations  our  greatness  and  our  heroism. 
And  let  Liberty,  crownless  and  childless,  sit  upon  these  ruins,  crying  aloud  in  a 
sad  wail  to  the  nations  of  the  world,  '  I  nursed  and  brought  up  children  and  they 
have  rebelled  against  me '." 

Oakes  Ames  was  one  of  the  quiet  but  potent  factors  in  the  War 
Era.  It  is  dangerous  to  devise  without  the  counsel  of  strong  finan 
ciers.  In  the  great  war  epoch,  no  man's  opinion  on  finance  was 
more  sought  for,  and  on  a  close  vote  a  quiet  appeal  was  of  greater 
service  than  vociferous  speech.  Mr.  Stevens  would  say  to  me,  "  I 
wish  I  knew  without  asking  how  Ames  stood.  He  can  be  relied 
on  to  kill  what  is  not  worthy  of  support,  for  he  is  a  man  of  affairs, 
doing  more  for  a  great  enterprise,  which  may  bring  only  curses, 
than  any  man  in  Congress." 

A  brief  tribute  was  paid  to  him  in  my  "  Cattle  Industries  of 
the  United  States  ".  I  stood  by  his  monument  at  Sherman,  Wyom 
ing.  This  monument  is  of  native  granite,  forty  feet  square,  one 
hundred  feet  in  height,  and  costing  one  hundred  thousand  dollars. 
Oliver  Ames,  the  conservative  brother,  in  a  granite  bust,  faces  east 
ward;  Oakes  Ames,  the  congressman,  has  his  face  westward.  He 
was  the  animating  soul. 

"  We  all  stepped  from  the  cars  and  cheered,  amid  the  waving 
of  handkerchiefs  by  ladies,  in  honor  of  a  name  beyond  the  reach  of 
calumny,  high  on  the  roll  of  American  benefactors.  The  writer 
could  not  suppress  his  emotion  in  regret  that  he,  so  brave  and 
devoted,  was  not  spared  to  witness  more  than  the  fruition  of  his 
fondest  hopes;  to  know  that  his  fame  is  alike  assured  with  the 
'  sages  who  wrote  and  the  warriors  who  have  bled ' ;  and,  without 
the  commemorative  monument,  the  herdsman  by  the  mountains, 
and  travelers  in  journeys  from  ocean  to  ocean,  and  all  just  Ameri 
cans  will  honor  his  name  down  the  ages,  'till  the  sun  grows  cold 
and  the  stars  are  old'." 

The  State  of  Massachusetts,  by  the  clear  voices  of  her  scholars 
and  patriots  may  well  ask  —  it  does — that  the  resolution  of  cen 
sure  be  expunged.  It  will  be  in  due  time,  when  the  feeble  tributes 
of  to-day  will  be  forgotten  amid  the  thrilling  plaudits  of  brave, 
just  citizens  for  an  honest  man  and  wise  legislator. 

I  might  enlarge  in  further  personal  mention  of  the  actors  in 
the  War  Congresses.  Their  names  and  promotions  are  suggestive 
of  the  noblest  manhood,  and  in  association  with  immortal  deeds. 


138  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

I  notice  a  few  names  from  the  civil  and  military  lists  promoted  to 
senators,  governors  and  well-equipped  diplomats,  but  a  failure  to 
mention  a  longer  list  does  not  imply  less  patriotic  devotion  on 
their  part  to  the  country's  weal.  Many,  with  an  aversion  to  poli 
tics  have  been  found  engaged  in  private  affairs,  and  in  public 
enterprises  congenial  to  taste  and  bringing  greater  profit. 

RUTHEKFORD    B.    HAYES 

was  a  quiet,  modest  gentleman  in  personality,  a  soldier  patriot, 
and  a  decided  statesman  president.  He  is  gaining  a  larger  place 
in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen  by  the  hearty  and  beneficent  serv 
ices  of  a  private  citizen,  when  human  elevation  and  want  ask  a 
friendly  voice  or  wise  counsel. 

A  brief  congressional  career  was  closed  by  the  nomination  for 
governor  of  Ohio  of  this  quiet  man,  before  known  to  the  House  by 
a  speech  on  a  resolution.  A  question  of  one  of  his  sagacious  col 
leagues  I  repeated  for  the  merriment  of  the  fortunate  president  at 
the  White  House.  "Do  you  know  that  man  next  to  Coif  ax  —  a 
smiler — how  tasteful  in  dress,  always  writing,  never  making  a 
political  record;  he  has  the  common  sense  to  win.  Watch  and 
cultivate  him.  He  will  be  president  of  the  United  States.'' 

JAMES    A.    GARFIELD. 

President  Garfield  was  quite  another  statesman.  A  frequent 
speaker  and  a  leader  in  debate,  learned,  fervid  and  electrical.  He 
appeared  in  the  apt  moment  to  win  the  votes  for  a  nomination  by 
a  fine  civil  and  military  career  and  captivating  eloquence.  What 
member  spent  so  many  hours  in  the  library  and  who  of  the  Presi 
dents  was  his  peer  in  scholarship.  Nor  was  he  wanting  socially 
in  gentlemanly  spontaneity.  His  mind  was  a  storehouse  of  facts, 
not  less  than  his  heart  of  desires  and  plans  for  the  education  of 
his  generation.  Thus  I  recall  the  pleasant  good-morning  slap  on 
the  shoulder :  "  Well,  Josiah,  how  is  Iowa  College  ?  I  envy  you 
and  wish  my  people  were  up  to  your  standard.  The  best  service 
now  I  could  render  my  people  would  be  in  an  educational  line 
week  days,  and  good  words  and  a  higher  life  on  Sunday.  For 
Hiram  Institute  I  have  plead  by  day  and  dreamed  by  night  in 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  139 

anxiety,  for  a  higher  education  and  practical  is  the  work  near  to 
us,  since  the  drum-beat  of  silence." 

Vice-President  Wheeler  was  a  quiet  New  York  statesman. 
Schuyler  Colfax,  the  pet  of  the  press,  and  a  gentleman  urbane, 
high-toned  and  exemplary  in  life,  rose  to  the  second  place  in  the 
government,  but  passed  under  a  political  cloud  which  cast  its 
shadow  over  him,  I  truly  and  charitably  believe,  not  by  evil  com 
plicity  on  his  part  with  the  "  Credit  Mobilier "  scandal,  but  by  a 
possible  mistake  of  one  of  the  parties,  perhaps  never  to  be 
explained.  Most  cheerful  was  Mr.  Colfax  as  I  met  him  in  Denver, 
happy  out  of  the  political  whirl,  and  gladly  leaving  his  fame  to  a 
later  generation. 

This  war  Congress  also  furnished  James  G.  Blaine  as  speaker, 
who,  notwithstanding  the  trials  of  a  candidate,  is  extolled  even 
by  enemies  as  a  great  statesman,  even  if  failing  to  reach  the 
high  position  to  which  he  was  believed  to  have  been  elected  in 
1884. 

War  legislation  and  army  experiences  educated  the  following 
gentlemen  of  national  repute,  giving  the  responsibilities  of  senator 
or  governor.  The  State  of  Iowa  has  wisely  kept  William  B.  Alli 
son  and  James  F.  Wilson  in  the  Senate ;  of  them  I  have  spoken. 
Cornelius  Cole  appeared  from  California;  J.  A.  J.  Cresswell  was 
cabinet  minister  as  well  as  senator;  Gov.  George  S.  Boutwell  and 
Henry  L.  Dawes  of  Massachusetts  were  senators ;  E.  H.  Rollins 
and  J.  W.  Patterson  of  New  Hampshire,  Justin  S.  Morrell  of  Ver 
mont,  T.  W.  Ferry  of  Michigan,  Roscoe  Conkling  of  New  York, 
Philetus  Sawyer  of  Wisconsin,  Shelby  Cullom  of  Illinois,  and  the 
lamented  William  Windom  of  Minnesota,  reached  political  fame 
without  scandal. 

William  B.  Washburn  and  Alexander  H.  Rice  of  Massachu 
setts,  and  Sidney  Perham  of  Maine,  became  governors,  while  there 
were,  distinguished  in  the  diplomatic  service,  Elihu  B.  Washburn, 
Gen.  Robert  C.  Schenck,  and  John  A.  Kasson,  all  united  in  convic 
tion  that  the  constitutional  amendments  were  necessary  as  anch 
orage  in  reconstruction.  Fiercely  opposed  —  leading  spirits  in 
the  democratic  party,  yet  finding  distinction,  were  Brooks,  Cox? 
Pendletori,  Kerr,  Vice-President  Hendricks  and  Fernando  Wood. 
These  have  closed  their  career,  leaving  Kernan,  Holman  and  Voor- 
hees  in  meditation  upon  perverse  action  and  false  prophecies  of  ill 
success  in  reconstruction,  which  they  jeopardizad  by  sympathy 


140  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

with  the  vanquished,  and  in  a  desire  for  the  domination  of  the 
party  recreant  to  principle  and  lacking  capacity  to  govern. 

In  the  Senate  were  our  bold  colleagues,  the  bulwarks  of  the 
Union,  strengthening  the  armed  cohorts.  It  is  a  fashion  to  talk  of 
the  "  better  days  of  the  republic "  and  to  depreciate  living  actors. 
In  this  there  is  no  reason.  A  better  organized  heart-and-brain- 
equipped  company  of  statesmen,  of  genial,  radical  co-laborers,  will 
never  be  raised  up  to  confront  traitors.  What  jointly  had  we  to 
do?  To  defend  and  enforce  the  draft  in  the  presence  of  the 
Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle,  one  of  the  most  secret,  wicked, 
powerful  and  cruel  organizations  to  be  found  in  all  the  chapters  of 
time  —  unmasked  by  ex-cabinet  Minister  Joseph  Holt,  who  with 
almost  inspired  denunciation  placed  it  as  on  its  final  gibbet. 
Then  there  was  the  greenback,  virulently  attacked  in  both  houses, 
a  financial  device  based  on  the  credit  and  character  of  our  people, 
assailed  at  every  step  as  an  unconstitutional  issue  of  money. 
Then  the  internal  revenue  scheme,  which  stamped  a  burden  on 
business,  yet  a  necessity  in  raising  revenue,  was  a  fit  subject  for 
the  constant  jeer  of  those  only  that  may  be  likened  to  a  Nero,  who, 
if  not  the  author  of  the  conflagration  of  a  city,  could  at  least  fiddle 
and  smile  over  its  ruins.  Greater  than  all  was  the  protective  tar 
iff,  its  success,  next  to  emancipation,  inspiring  hate  for  the  eastern 
states,  and  plots  to  alienate  the  West,  as  if  both  sections  were  not 
bound  together  in  the  issues  which  these  great  measures  embraced. 

I  name  these  senators  not  in  the  order  of  their  potency.  Wil 
liam  Pitt  Fessenden,  the  son  of  Samuel  Fessenden,  an  old  aboli 
tionist  at  whose  hospitable  table  I  have  sat  in  Portland,  Me.,  was 
cool  and  logical.  Senator  Lyman  Trumbell,  of  Illinois,  in  draft  of 
bills  and  analytical  debate  had  no  peer,  as  his  colleague,  Ex-Gov 
ernor  Yates,  who  fell  so  sadly  by  intemperance,  had  no  equal  in 
brilliancy,  as  was  evinced  in  his  championship  on  many  subjects. 
John  P.  Hale,  of  New  Hampshire,  was  earlier  on  the  ground,  the 
wit  and  patriot  for  a  decade,  the  pride  of  the  North  and  a  foe  in  a 
well-clad  mail  which  the  chivalry  of  the  South  could  not  pierce. 
Senator  Zachary  Chandler  of  Michigan  and  Senator  Wade  of  Ohio, 
were  rough  in  expression,  bolder  in  action  for  having  made  an 
exposure  on  the  "Conduct  of  the  War"  as  waged  by  the  craft  and 
inaction  of  General  McClellan.  These  senators  wore  his  military 
scalp  dangling  as  a  trophy,  which  I  now  believe  was  more  than  an 
incident  to  the  unfolding  of  a  political  conspiracy,  and  the  destruc- 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  141 

tion  of  slavery  and  the  restoration  of  the  Union.  Sumner  of 
Massachusetts,  the  scholar,  and  Wilson  the  Natick  cobbler,  with 
Iowa's  eminent  and  alert  senators,  I  have  elsewhere  sketched,  to 
whom  might  be  added  a  list  composed  of  Reverdy  Johnson  of 
Maryland,  a  late  convert,  John  Sherman  of  Ohio,  and  Solomon 
Foote  of  Vermont,  whom  I  have  placed  on  a  pedestal  with  the 
loyal  Vermonters  at  his  funeral  obsequies  in  the  capitol. 

Of  the  opposition,  the  genial  Hendricks  of  Indiana,  was  not  so 
far  party-blinded  as  not  to  admit  his  mistake  ten  years  later. 
McDougal  of  California,  was  seldom  sober  enough  to  represent 
either  himself  or  his  loyal  people;  while  Garrett  Davis  of  Ken 
tucky,  had  a  whining  refrain,  disgusting  his  Senate  colleagues  and 
the  country  with  harangues  only  remembered  by  their  days  of 
duration,  there  being  no  previous  question  to  arrest  his  garrulous- 
ness  in  debate. 

Senator  D.  W.  Voorhees  of  Indiana,  was  the  bitter,  impassioned 
orator  and  opposition  leader.  He  dared  to  be  bold  in  figures  and 
dashing  in  rhetoric.  The  late  Samuel  J.  Randall  of  Pennsylvania, 
also  a  democrat,  I  saw  in  his  incipient  greatness;  he* was  social, 
genial,  ambitious,  tolerant,  an  honest  advocate  of  the  American 
protective  principle,  and  of  him  it  will  be  said  when  his  life  is 
written,  "  He  was  the  ambitious  partisan  who  saved  his  party  from 
defeat,  and  in  whose  sad  demise  there  is  a  tear  for  a  foe  who 
had  no  enemy,  and  a  statesman  without  a  price,  yet  with  an  unen 
viable  war  record." 

The  late  James  Brooks  of  New  York,  triplex  in  the  gifts  of 
orator,  writer  and  historical  statesman,  of  the  democratic  party, 
went  down  under  the  same  cloud  and  by  the  same  agencies  as 
Oakes  Ames  of  Massachusetts.  Mr.  Brooks  in  temperament  was 
fitted  for  a  revolutionist,  and  in  the  American  Congress,  with  pro 
fessions  of  loyalty,  was  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  dangerous  of 
the  obstructionists  of  his  party  who  held  sway  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  He  was  unseated  by  the  model  philanthropist  and  states 
man,  William  E.  Dodge,  whose  memoirs  by  his  son,  D.  Stuart 
Dodge,  should  be  read  by  every  person  seeking  the  highest  loyal 
type  of  manhood. 

Some,  in  the  House,  not  only  whispered  their  sympathy  with 
treason,  but  like  Benjamin  B.  Harris  of  Maryland  and  Alexander 
Long  of  Ohio,  declared  our  war  a  barbarism;  and  success,  they 
fervently  hoped,  would  be  impossible.  Resolutions  of  censure 


142  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    TEARS. 

were  passed,  but  not  a  two-thirds  vote  could  be  obtained  after  a 
lengthy  and  bitter  discussion.  This  fact  gave  comfort  to  the 
enemy  and  proved  the  status  of  at  least  sixty  democrats  in  the 
House.  The  discussion  itself  was  salutary,  educating  up  to  a  high 
plane  of  loyalty  at  home,  nursing  the  valor  of  the  soldiers  in  the 
field,  while  awakening  detestation  for  peace  democrats,  who  were 
called  Copperheads,  really  the  most  dangerous  foe  to  a  restoration 
of  the  Union,  whatever  their  professions.  Fernando  Wood  of 
New  York,  the  ex-mayor,  was  a  cunning  rebel,  but  not  more  in 
favor  than  the  more  frank  and  bold  sympathizers  with  the  South. 
Pendleton  of  Ohio,  was  the  cool  statesman,  who  added  nothing  to 
his  permanent  fame  by  the  championship  of  civil  service  reform. 
Yet,  I  could  praise  him  for  his  eulogy  of  Love  joy,  remembering 
how  frank  were  his  expressions  and  genial  his  nature ;  but  this 
could  be  no  atonement  for  a  failure  to  support  the  constitutional 
amendments. 

Of  S.  S.  Cox  of  New  York,  deceased  in  1889,  I  said : 

He  was  alert,  almost  ubiquitous,  voluble,  ready  in  debate,  witty  in  retort,  and 
an  able  parliamentarian.  His  industry  as  a  legislator  and  his  classic  tastes  always 
won  respectful  and  delighted  hearers,  while  he  lacked  that  power  to  which  learn 
ing,  eloquence  and  thirty  years'  service  gave  him  title.  As  a  man  he  was  social 
and  attractive ;  the  delight  of  the  galleries,  with  the  suave  ways  of  a  "  Buckeye  " 
and  refinement  of  a  savant  and  fortunate  traveler.  He  was  cautious  and  wary  in 
public  gaze  and  discussion,  as  evinced  in  declining  debate  with  the  elegant  and 
bold  Henry  Winter  Davis,  especially  avoiding  the  old  commoner  wielding  a  Damas 
cus  blade  —  Thaddeus  Stevens.  Once,  in  a  thoughtless  hour  and  mood,  on  hurl 
ing  a  question  at  Ben  Butler,  I  saw  a  wave  of  the  hand  in  disdain  and  heard  an 
echo,  the  street  song  of  the  boys  — 

"  Shoo  fly,  don't  bodder  me." 

This,  taken  up  by  a  prolonged  shout  of  the  house,  was  one  of  the  most  effect 
ive  rebuffs  on  record.  Mr.  Cox  was  the  best  equipped  and  ablest  politician  of  his 
party,  yet  never  fully  trusted.  He  incurred  the  dislike  of  Pendleton  and  Randall, 
and  was  quite  too  conspicuous  for  the  fame  of  younger  and  ambitious  partisans. 
It  was  a  cold  and  unfeeling  part  which  he  played  on  the  Freedman's  Bureau  Bill, 
and  after  the  war  naming  Republicans  miscegenationists,  as  more  offensive  to  the 
"groundlings"  than  that  of  Abolitionists.  His  "Anti-robber"  tariff  speeches 
were  numerous  and  illusory,  adapted  to  free-trade  New  York,  while  he  well  knew 
that  protection  was  the  safer  policy,  and  matured  conviction  of  the  West.  His 
peculiar  friends  may  hold  that  in  the  war,  like  Douglas,  he  forgot  party  to  be  a 
patriot.  But  he  was  the  bitterest  foe  of  the  great  amendments  and  our  national 
currency;  and  ablest  generals  in  the  field  he  satirized  without  reason.  The  biog 
rapher  will  note  that  he  did  not  attain  the  power  or  place  to  which  an  author,  a 
scholar  and  wit  gave  title.  This  may  well  be  the  solution  of  the  failure  —  lack  of 
courage  and  conviction  —  a  politician  in  search  of  mere  majorities. 

The  blacks,  their  position  in  the  war,  and  their  future,  was  a 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  143 

question  which  loomed  high  and  was  the  occasion  of  many  a  threat 
ening  storm.  Even  if  egotistic,  I  must  say  that  the  first  resolution 
which  I  ever  offered  in  the  American  Congress  and  which  was 
adopted,  gave  focus  to  an  opinion  and  was  in  these  words: 
Resolved,  that  a  more  vigorous  policy  to  enlist,  at  an  early  day 
and  in  larger  numbers,  in  our  army,  persons  of  African  descent, 
would  meet  the  approbation  of  the  House.  More  than  a  mere  sen 
timent,  it  was  heeded  by  land  and  by  sea.  There  were  new  enlist 
ments,  and  the  policy  of  enrolling  the  black  man  as  a  sailor  and  a 
soldier  was  defended  from  the  highest  plane  of  statesmanship. 

A  resume  of  the  actors  and  the  deeds  furnishes  a  remarkable 
chapter  in  our  historic  annals.  Has  a  nation  raised  up  men  more 
worthy  of  their  mission  than  the  loyal  congressmen?  Have  there 
been  achievements,  military  or  civil,  to  bear  comparison  with  those 
of  the  war  epoch?  The  loyal  legislators  made  history.  They 
invoked  the  criticism  of  the  civilized  world,  not  less  than  its  admi 
ration  for  heroism  and  the  soundness  of  their  conclusions.  Cour 
age  and  sacrifice  were  the  first  requirements,  then  patience,  and 
broad  statesmanship  in  reconstruction.  Was  it  not  an  honor  to  be 
associated  with  the  Thirty-eighth  and  Thirty-ninth  Congresses  — 
1863-1867  —  marshaling  armies,  upholding  credit)  confronting  for 
eign  enemies,  silencing  in  the  rear  the  guns  of  the  Knights  of  the 
Golden  Circle,  restraining  a  president  in  his  divisive  plots,  bring 
ing  life  into  new  states  and  harmonizing  by  an  industrial  policy 
millions  estranged  by  war  into  homogeneity  ? 

To  sum  up  the  brilliant  record  of  this  War  Congress  would  be 
to  reprint  the  bold  speeches  of  Thaddeus  Stevens,  on  the  con 
quered  states  held  as  territories,  and  his  defense  of  our  financial 
system  in  the  revenues  it  brought  and  in  the  credit  of  the  country 
which  it  maintained.  None  wished  to  meet  Stevens,  nor  Sumner, 
nor  Trumbell,  nor  Harlan  or  Grimes  in  the  open  field  of  debate. 
Our  enemies  rested  in  the  vain  delusion  that  the  northern  people 
would  waver  in  the  presence  of  debts,  personal  alienation,  and  in 
the  flow  of  rivers  of  blood.  The  star  of  Mr.  Lincoln  rose  high,  the 
valor  of  our  patriots  was  assured  to  the  world,  and  to  the  credit  of 
Iowa,  James  Harlan  in  a  speech  in  reply  to  Senator  Saulsbury,  bold 
in  statement,  clear  in  the  light  of  religion  and  history,  declared 
that  no  class  of  men  were  made  for  slavery,  and  that  they  who  had 
enslaved,  would,  in  their  overthrow,  learn  a  lesson  by  the  ven 
geance  which  the  God  of  this  nation  would  visit  upon  the  disloyal. 


144  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

He  lives  crowned  with  years  and  honors ;  his  colleague,  Senator 
Grimes,  has  passed  away,  with  national  tributes  to  the  memory  of 
him,  who,  impatient  with  false  leaders,  was  a  mighty  factor  in 
making  the  navy  a  powerful  arm  of  our  national  service,  securing 
victories  that  overwhelmed  pretended  patriots  in  Congress,  and  the 
millions  misled  by  their  example. 

DARK    WAR    DAYS    AT    HOME. 

From  the  War  Congress  of  1863-5  we  may  turn  to  some  local 
Iowa  Scenes  of  1864.  War  came  to  our  doors.  There  was  menace 
in  the  "Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle";  a  spy  often  in  the  house; 
traitors  in  jury  boxes,  and  judges  with  the  heart  of  a  Jeffreys  on 
the  bench  in  our  cities.  Even  Mayor  Wood  of  New  York,  proposed 
secession  for  that  city.  Ex-President  Pierce  gave  his  opinion  to 
the  world,  by  an  intercepted  letter,  that  there  would  be  fighting 
among  the  dwellers  on  both  sides  of  the  Mason  and  Dixon  line. 
Citizens  of  Iowa  were  in  prison  on  charge  of  aiding  rebels,  and 
justice  was  then  but  partially  meted  out. 

This  was  a  dark  hour  when  the  loyal  pulse  beat  feverishly. 
Gold  was  worth  a  premium  of  one  dollar  and  eighty  cents.  Banks 
were  closing  and  capital  hieing  away  into  vaults,  or  passing  to  the 
Old  World  for  safety  in  the  emergency  of  disunion.  The  great 
city  of  New  York  in  the  hands  of  traitors,  a  colored  orphan  asylum 
in  flames  by  the  fury  of  a  mob,  Governor  Seymour  making  a  timid, 
perhaps  a  politic  address  to  a  mob,  addressing  it  as  "  My  friends ! " 
Our  union  forces  in  the  field  met  defeats,  and  orders  were  given  to 
draft  for  the  military  service.  This  brings  up  local  history  of  a 
war  incident,  far  from  our  battle-fields. 

The  Provost  Marshal's  office,  occupied  by  Captain  James 
Mathews,  had  been  established  at  Grinnell  and  loyal  speakers  held 
meetings  to  fill  up  the  ranks,  in  hope  to  save  us  from  disgrace  of  a 
draft.  Sugar  Creek  township  in  the  south-west  corner  of  this 
county  was  behind  in  its  quota.  I  had  an  appointment  with 
Judge  H.  S.  Winslow  to  speak  south  of  Lynnville,  in  hope  that 
enlistments  could  be  secured  from  a  section  in  default  of  its 
quota.  Meantime  the  same  fatal  Saturday  was  a  drill  day  for  the 
copperhead  disloyal  circle.  Captain  J.  M.  Woodruff  and  John  L. 
Bashore,  soldiers  on  temporary  leave,  had  notification  papers  for 
the  arrest  of  three  persons  not  appearing,  called  for  by  the  draft. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  145 

They  took  a  buggy,  and,  well  armed,  struck  south  about  fifteen 
miles  to  execute  their  writs.  At  Mr.  J.  A.  Graver's,  who  was 
truly  loyal,  but  cautious  —  father  of  Hon.  C.  F.  Graver  —  they 
took  dinner,  and  then  learned  that  part  •  of  a  company  had  passed 
that  way  for  drill  day.  There  the  parties  wanted  might  be  found 
bearing  arms,  and,  before  facing  the  disloyal  cohorts,  it  was 
deemed  best  without  risk  to  report  the  situation  at  head  quarters. 
Without  a  suspicion  or  fear  of  an  assault,  they  met  an  Irishman 
by  the  name  of  Pat  Gleason,  apparently  well  disposed  to  answer 
questions  as  to  a  return  road  through  the  grove.  At  that  moment 
two  men,  the  Fleener  brothers,  in  ambush  or  on  the  way  from  the 
drill,  fired  upon  the  marshals  from  the  rear,  inflicting  fatal 
wounds.  The  venom  of  an  enemy  appeared  in  the  mild-mannered 
Gleason  breaking  his  gun  over  the  head  of  Bashore,  but  him 
self  received  a  shot  which  broke  his  leg,  so  that  he  was  left  a 
forced  witness  by  the  blood-thirsty  Fleeners,  who  fled  westward. 
Woodruff's  last  words  were,  "Tell  the  Captain  I  died  doing  my 
duty."  A  courier  from  Graver's,  where  the  dead  marshals  had 
been  borne  from  the  brush,  was  sent  to  Grinnell,  and  the  order  for 
the  arrest  of  the  company  and  a  proclamation  of  martial  law  was 
made,  to  protect  the  office  records  while  drawing  the  lines  of  deep- 
seated  treason  into  bolder  relief.  The  drilling  company  dispersed, 
and  their  guns  were  concealed  rather  than  hung  up  for  handy  use 
as  of  old  in  the  kitchens.  Meantime,  while  making  my  way  home 
after  dark,  my  horses,  quick  under  the  lash,  were  in  a  fright,  and  I 
heard  a  shout,  "  It  is  him,  by  G — ,"  and  the  lash  soon  brought  me 
beyond  the  lurking  assassins  whose  threats  had  come  to  me. 
Fearing  a  second  call,  I  hurried  on  to  Mr.  Kenworthy's,  where  I 
passed  the  night,  yet  only  later  aware  of  my  real  peril  and  narrow 
escape  from  assassination. 

It  was  a  quiet  Sabbath  morning,  when,  nearing  our  city  from  a 
west  road,  I  was  challenged  by  soldiers  and  forbidden  to  pass  with 
out  an  order  from  the  provost  marshal.  This  was  the  first  shock 
on  the  news  of  assassination,  and  the  fear  that  treason  might  lay 
the  town  in  ashes.  Every  loyal  man  seemed  a  marshal,  and  the 
riding  through  Sugar  Creek  and  the  borders  of  Washington  town 
ship,  the  secret  lurking  places  of  suspected  criminals,  would  make 
a  long  and  exciting  chapter. 

I  hastened  to  the  scene  of  treason  and  murder.  The  Irishman 
Gleason  I  found  in  his  cabin,  and  about  to  be  strung  up  by  a  rope 


146  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

fastened  to  the  rafters,  so  infuriated  were  our  townsmen  at  his 
silence  and  stolid  indifference  to  the  murders  which  he  had  wit 
nessed,  if  not  a  party  thereto.  Great  was  his  surprise  on  seeing 
me,  for  months  after  he  told  me  that  they  were  after  "larger 
game"  than  hireling  strangers — they  had  vowed  to  die  before 
going  to  help  put  down  a  nigger  war.  I  protested,  as  the  rope  was 
about  to  be  drawn,  against  hanging  a  man  with  a  leg  broken,  and 
he  could  give  us  testimony  perhaps  important  if  left  alive.  He 
raised  his  head  with  a  gleam  of  hope  and  said,  "I  will  say  some 
thing  if  you  will  all  leave  the  room  and  let  me  whisper  to  Grin- 
nell.  This  was  his  story:  "I  did  not  belong  to  the  company;  it 
was  the  two  Fleeners  who  fired,  and  I  came  up  and  was  shot. 
They  went  for  you,  and  how  did  you  escape  ?  Let  me  live  and  I 
will  tell  the  truth.  I  know  my  guilt  but  don't  want  to  die.  I  am 
no  murderer."  The  crowd  yielded  as  I  came  out,  and  Gleason  was 
spared  to  be  tried,  and  found  guilty,  and  sentenced  to  be  hung,  his 
execution  only  arrested  by  a  life  imprisonment  at  Fort  Madison 
(by  order  of  President  Johnson),  where  he  died  years  after  —  I 
trust  penitential,  certainly  a  very  good  loyalist  talker;  and  in 
prison  he  admitted  that  I  saved  his  life  in  the  cabin.  If  it  was 
a  cold-blooded  refusal  to  sign  the  petition  to  prolong  life,  I  felt 
there  was  an  occasion  for  swift  retribution  to  traitors  of  the  "fire 
in  the  rear"  order. 

My  next  office  was  intercession  for  a  liberation  of  a  portion  of 
the  thirty  suspected,  under  guard  in  my  wool  house,  making  a  bed 
of  the  sacks  soft  with  wool  stored  for  market.  Some  of  the 
number  had  the  crown  of  years  and  a  record  of  good  behavior, 
while  others  could  not  be  punished,  for  lack  of  an  overt  act.  It 
was  used  as  a  most  opportune  occasion  for  advice  to  the  doubtfully 
loyal.  The  corpses  of  the  officers  I  accompanied  to  Oskaloosa, 
where  crowds  assembled.  At  Knoxville,  the  home  of  Capt.  Wood 
ruff,  I  addressed  an  immense  crowd  at  the  court  house,  picturing 
treason  near  home  and  the  issue  of  blood  in  crimson  flow  at  the 
South.  It  was  an  occasion  to  hush  secret  enemies,  and  it  not  only 
buoyed  up  the  loyal  but  facilitated  enlistments  in  protest  to  das 
tardly  assassination  on  Iowa  soil.  The  state  offered  a  reward  of 
$500  for  the  capture  of  the  Fleeners,  returned  dead  or  alive, 
which  I  duplicated,  so  positive  were  we  of  the  guilt  and  deserts  of 
those  men,  never  arrested.  They  had  farms,  and  kindred  suc 
ceeded  them  in  occupation.  Perhaps  twenty  years  had  elapsed 


REMINISCENCES  OF  FOETY   YEAES. 

before  they  dared  pollute  our  soil.  It  was  in  1886  that  I  heard  of 
their  abode  in  the  West,  and  there  came  a  proposal  for  their  arrest 
if  the  award  was  held  good.  The  statute  of  limitations  forbade 
their  trial  for  murder,  and  a  return  to  Iowa  would  have  brought  to 
them  death  by  the  enraged  relatives  of  Bashore  and  Woodruff. 
To  assassination  I  could  not  be  a  party,  and  those  deserving  death 
were  left  undisturbed  after  twenty-three  years  of  expatriation  in 
Kansas.  So  ends  a  chapter  of  home  war  history,  and  the  days 
bringing  joy  but  never  mitigating  the  disloyalty  of  the  ignorant 
dupes  of  the  Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle,  an  order  of  which  Val- 
landigham  and  reputed  statesmen  of  his  rank  were  secret  leaders, 
only  waiting  for  reverses  in  the  field  to  hoist  the  flag  of  cowardly 
concession  or  disunion. 

Two  noble  lives  on  duty  were  worth  a  regiment  in  awakening 
patriotism  in  Iowa  and  unfolding  the  deep  plots  of  traitors  in  the 
county.  In  company  with  the  governor,  the  comrades  of  Bashore 
and  Woodruff  came  down  from  Des  Moines,  so  enraged  that  they 
asked  permission  for  the  privilege  of  taking  care  of  the  assassins, 
saying  they  would  have  fifty  funerals  in  as  many  hours.  This 
was  not  tolerated.  Professor  S.  J.  Buck  of  Iowa  College,  being 
captain  at  the  head  of  many  citizens  and  students,  was  quietly 
making  arrests  and  unearthing  the  treasonable  conspiracy  that 
had  ordered  large  shipments  of  muskets  into  the  county.  Those 
drafted  who  failed  to  report  and  for  whom  the  officers  held  orders 
for  an  arrest,  were  Joseph  Eobertson,  Thomas  Mclntyre  and  Sam 
uel  A.  Bryant. 


CHAPTER  X. 

Thirty-ninth  Congress,  1865-7 — Financial  Problems  —  Red  Tape 
—  Whiskey  Tax — The  Thirteenth  Amendment — Reconstruction 
— Review  of  the  Times — The  Press  Reporters. 

IT  was  under  a  brighter  sky  that  I  took  my  seat  in  the  Thirty- 
ninth  Congress.  There  had  been  sent  up  a  body  of  legislators 
fresh  from  the  people,  demanding  an  unconditional  surrender  of 
the  armed  rebels.  Only  three  states  —  Delaware,  Kentucky  and 
New  Jersey — dissenting  in  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  It  is  not 
to  be  assumed  that  the  majority  were  in  absolute  harmony.  A 
class  like  Senators  Wade,  Chase,  Stevens  and  Davis,  called  "  push 
ing  radicals ",  had  a  policy  in  the  treatment  of  contrabands.  But 
they  joined  in  the  re-election  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  on  the  surface 
there  was  political  harmony. 

The  following  family  letter  is  in  marked  contrast  by  its  spirit, 
to  that  written  on  the  meeting  of  the  previous  Congress.  Then  I 
was  a  stranger,  my  seat  contested,  and  the  country  was  under  a 
war  cloud  of  gathering  blackness  and  bringing  the  throes  of  revolu 
tion.  Now,  nothing  could  dim  or  hide  the  victories  in  the  field. 
My  seat,  before  contested,  was  now  secured  by  a  popular  majority 
of  six  thousand  votes.  The  letter  is  here  given  as  narrating  an 
incident  in  the  life  of  Thaddeus  Stevens  rather  than  my  own,  and 
as  expressing  the  universal  joy  of  the  loyal  : 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 
My  Dear  Wife  : 

Well,  I  am  in  my  seat,  and  it  is  by  invitation  at  the  side  of  Mr.  Stevens,  the 
leader  of  the  House.  His  name  was  in  the  top  of  the  box  for  drawing,  and  on  a 
full  half-sheet  of  foolscap,  which  gave  him  the  first  choice,  and  his  hat  preempted 
the  coveted  next  seat,  which  was  reserved  for  me.  It  was  in  vain  that  I  said  it 
belongs  to  an  older  member  of  your  committee.  "  No,  no.  It  was  generosity  in 
the  last  Congress  that  kept  me  from  the  noisy  rear,  and  I  want  you  right  here,  if 

you  can  endure  trembling  senility,  and  the  adjoining  profanity,  for  General  

is  next  on  the  left."    A  seat  in  this  great  noisy  chamber  is  not  a  small  affair ;  then 


EEMINISCENCES   OF  FOETT    YEARS.  149 

to  know  the  order  of  business,  and  listen  to  the  wits,  as  they  hover  near,  is  a  great 
return  for  an  act  of  civility. 

So  with  a  good  seat,  not  one  contested  in  want  of  a  home  majority,  as  before, 
and  buttressed  now  by  six  thousand  majority,  and  with  news  of  victories  all  along 
our  lines,  with  fewer  copperheads  to  face,  I  ought  to  be  happy.  I  am  at  least  con 
tent,  unsuited  as  Washington  air  and  ways  may  be  to  my  health,  and  so  unlike 
home  associations.  Many  of  the  ambitious  in  the  home  district  covet  my  seat,  and 
they  will  not  find  me  in  the  way,  by  efforts  to  retain  it  if  I  can  see  the  war  over. 

Yours, 

J.  B.  GBINNELL. 


This  and  the  previous  Congress  had  to  deal  with  such  financial 
problems  as  never  had  confronted  a  people.  Hundreds  of  millions 
of  a  war  debt  had  been  contracted,  and  enemies  at  home  and 
abroad  pictured  repudiation.  The  loyal,  despoiled,  clamored  for 
pay ;  railways  sought  relief  from  the  harsh  exactions  of  war,  as 
common  carriers  in  times  of  peace.  Internal  taxes  seemed  heavy. 
Wounded  soldiers  asked  relief,  and  like  those  in  the  field  desired 
larger  pay  and  bounties  for  enlistment.  Added  to  just  appeals, 
the  demoralization  of  war  was  exhibited  in  stronger  colors  and 
with  more  repugnant  facts.  Plucking  the  government  in  many 
quarters  was  regarded  as  a  pastime  or  a  fine  art.  In  disgust  I  was 
glad  at  last  to  close  my  congressional  service. 

Oh,  the  red  tape !  It  dangled  from  the  limp  fingers  of  rollick 
ing  clerks,  was  in  bows  and  knots,  starched  and  plaited.  It  was  a 
disgraceful  burlesque  to  hunt  in  pigeon-holes,  to  aid  a  quartermas 
ter  or  a  postmaster  in  a  trivial  claim  or  correction.  War  had  con 
taminated  the  civil  service  with  suspicions  and  obstructions,  and 
it  came  to  be,  with  an  anathema,  an  opinion  that  it  was  easier  to 
hole  a  lie  than  to  recover  a  paper  from  a  clerk's  pigeon-hole. 

The  day  would  open  with  letters  in  oppressive  numbers  —  for 
example : 

A  post  office  complaint. 

Notice  of  delicacies  sent  for  delivery  to  boys  in  prison  at  Libby 
from  home  —  many  appeals  before  forwarded. 

Error  in  description  of  land  patent. 

Soldier  hears  nothing  of  promised  promotion. 

Contestants  for  bank  charter. 

This  is  only  a  sample  of  demands  that  led  an  M.  C.  to  draw  the 
line  of  public  service  at  taking  in  washing.  It  was  unsafe  to  be 
absent,  with  only  a  small  political  margin  in  votes  on  vital  ques 
tions.  The  policy  of  a  high  whiskey  tax  for  revenue  was  joined  to 


150  REMINISCENCES  OF  FOETT  TEAES. 

one  more  than  a  collateral,  a  direct  good  in  decreasing  consump 
tion  by  increasing  the  cost.  City  members,  with  those  indifferent 
to  the  temperance  cause  were  for  a  low  rate.  A  heavy  tax  was 
adopted,  after  long  discussion,  bringing  a  wise  solution  of  a  great 
question  in  a  revenue  of  a  hundred  million  of  dollars  annually.  I 
am  glad  to  remember  that  I  had  an  active  part  in  effecting  this  end. 

It  was  a  further  duty  to  keep  up  coura.ge  at  home.  To  repre 
sent  and  respect  the  patriotism  of  our  people,  with  eight  thousand 
soldiers  in  the  field  from  the  Fourth  District,  I  did  get  through 
my  resolve  for  more  currency.  The  West  had  need,  as  we  were 
of  the  debtor  class.  The  war  party  had  the  power  of  issuing 
bonds  and  the  establishment  of  National  Banks,  to  provide  the 
sinews  of  war  and  maintain  the  national  credit. 

But  the  great  aspiration  of  the  country  was  the  entrenching  of 
an  emancipation  edict  as  a  war  measure  in  the  bulwarks  of  the 
constitution.  A  few  votes  were  lacking  to  pass  the  Thirteenth 
Amendment,  which  was  an  occasion  of  grief  to  Mr.  Lincoln  not 
less  than  to  the  loyal  soldiers  and  citizens  of  the  North. 

Time,  however,  brought  its  conpensations  after  the  democratic 
party  had  promulged  the  great  war-failure  lie,  and  made  McClel- 
lan  and  Pendleton  its  standard-bearers.  This  left  a  square  issue 
in  the  selection  of  members  of  Congress  undaunted  in  spirit,  and 
pledged  to  the  great  amendments  by  promises  early  redeemed. 
The  proclamation  did  not,  as  Senator  Cameron  proved,  "lose  us  the 
next  elections  ".  History  may  record  it  as  the  great  crisis,  and  in 
association  with  deeds  which  time  cannot  dim  in  congressional 
halls,  only  less  brilliant  in  debate  than  victories  in  the  field. 

A  meeting  of  the  loyal  war  governors  was  held  at  Altoona  on 
the  22d  of  September,  1864,  and  an  address  made  which  was  often 
quoted  and  gave  backbone  to  feeble  patriots ;  also,  a  reassuring 
voice  to  soldiers  tired  of  the  camp  and  fearful  of  the  "fire  in  the 
rear",  which  encouraged  a  prolongation  of  the  war,  permitting  a 
cruel  delusion  at  the  South,  and  inviting  murder  at  the  North. 

In  Congress,  Alexander  Long  of  Ohio,  expressed  his  treason  in 
the  belief  that  we  could  not  conquer  the  South,  for  we  were  in  the 
wrong,  and  Benjamin  Gr.  Harris  of  Maryland,  bolder  than  his 
party,  said  he  would  not  vote  a  man  or  a  dollar  for  the  war.  The 
effort  at  their  expulsion  revealed  the  desire  of  the  hearts  of  those 
persons  in  Congress  who  were  in  their  sympathy  but  too  late  to  be 
effective. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  151 

. 

Again  "  the  wrath  of  man  was  made  to  praise  Him  ".  It  was  a 
tonic  to  our  soldiers  in  the  field,  when  they  were  lauded  for  brav 
ery,  bounties  proffered,  and  thousands  of  new  recruits  sent  for 
ward  to  close  the  war.  It  was  the  welcome  to  colored  troops,  and 
a  widespread  knowledge  of  victories  in  the  camps  begetting  scorn 
for  pretended  patriots  and  blending  the  army  for  its  triumph. 
Not  so  can  I  dismiss  the  carpers,  cold-blooded  traitors.  Here  I 
class  Fernando  Wood  of  New  York.  He  was  in  Congress,  skilled 
as  a  leader,  and  adept  in  awakening  prejudice  against  the  colored 
people.  They  were  held  to  be  too  cowardly  for  soldiers,  and  quite 
beneath  the  care  or  thought  of  Congress  as  proposed  by  General  O. 
0.  Howard,  who  was  of  course  offensive  to  the  disloyal  as  a  soldier 
losing  an  arm  in  the  decisive  battle  of  Getty sburgh,  and  now 
chosen  for  his  great  heart  and  probity  for  service  involving 
humane  treatment  to  the  poor,  education  for  the  children  and 
enlistment  of  adults.  It  was  a  blow  aimed  by  Wood  at  Grant  pri 
marily,  but  looking  to  awakening  prejudices  that  would  stir  the 
lower  classes  and  lessen  the  colored  enlistments.  It  was  the 
device  of  one  who  had  hoped,  as  mayor  of  New  York,  that  his  city 
would  go  with  the  South.  Defeat  of  his  resolves  does  not  lessen 
his  perfidy  nor  atone  for  the  prejudices  aroused  and  evils  caused 
by  delays  in  securing  legislation,  alike  demanded  by  the  honor  and 
justice  of  the  nation.  For  the  House  a  more  radical  Senate  had 
led  the  way  by  a  vote  of  thirty-eight  yeas  to  six  nays.  Now  West 
Virginia  had  a  voice  on  the  right  side  by  her  loyal  Willey  and 
sturdy  Van  Winkle,  and  Maryland  sent  the  venerable  Reverdy 
Johnson  to  admit  the  evil  of  slavery  in  a  state,  and  the  policy  of 
its  inhibition  forever.  The  longer  sessions  in  that  body  having  no 
previous  question,  permitted  my  hearing  Senator  Wade  of  Ohio 
with  sledge  hammer  blows,  Wilson  of  Massachusetts  in  pleas  like 
a  plebeian  for  the  poor,  and  Charles  Su inner  on  a  broad  plain  of 
right  for  the  nation,  and  a  policy  to  save  honor  and  the  union. 
James  Harlan  of  Iowa  made  one  of  the  effective  speeches  of  his 
life  in  reply  to  Saulsbury,  who  plead  a  Bible  sanction  for  early  slav 
ery  and  the  morality  of  the  American  system.  Senator  Sherman 
treated  the  divine  right  theory  in  this  age  as  a  nauseous  defense 
of  it ;  and  he  did  not  convey  a  hint  that  those  who  resorted  to  these 
pleas  were  clouded  in  their  intellect.  I  must,  being  true  to  my 
perceptions,  affirm  that  Senator  McDougal  from  California,  and 
Saulsbury,  were  by  their  habits  unfit  for  legislation.  So  charitable 


152  REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY  YEARS. 

a  plea  could  not  be  made  for  Hendricks  of  Indiana,  who,  late  in  life 
before  reaching  the  Vice-Presidency,  admitted  his  error.  Riddle 
of  Delaware,  kept  the  traditions  of  his  state,  and  Powell  of  Ken 
tucky,  with  Senator  Davis  of  the  same  state,  clung  to  their  delu 
sion  of  an  old  union  with  a  slavery  corner-stone;  and  Davis  not 
only  spoke  hours,  but  days,  after  his  squeaky  voice  and  garrulous 
habits  had  emptied  the  galleries  and  put  members  to  sleep  in  dis 
gust  ;  the  officials  only  remaining  on  duty  to  make  an  audience. 

In  the  House  there  was  the  now  veteran  Holman,  ever  an 
objector.  Of  Fernando  Wood, Thaddeus  Stevens  spoke  as  one  who 
for  mere  party  could  never  hope  to  be  ranked  among  statesmen. 
"Nay,  sir,  he  will  not  even  rise  to  the  dignity  of  a  respectable 
demagogue." 

S.  S.  Cox  with  the  voice  of  Jacob  could  be  seen  with  the  hand 
of  Esau  indirectly,  on  economic  questions,  to  arraign  sections,  to 
weaken  the  nation's  power,  unfairly  using  figures  in  delusive 
array.  It  became  my  duty  to  answer  that  there  were  no  words  fit 
to  execrate  the  attempt,  in  time  of  war,  of  alienating  people  in  a 
struggle  for  their  flag. 

Mr  Randall  of  Pennsylvania  had  described  the  constitution 
sought  to  be  despoiled  as  a  tree  which  sheltered  him  in  youth,  and 
it  was  no  time  now  to  touch  a  single  bough.  General  J.  F.  Farns- 
worth  of  Illinois,  had  come  in  from  the  war,  and  with  fresh  appeals 
and  sharp  retorts  was  the  lieutenant  in  service  of  James  M. 
Ashley  of  Ohio,  who  called  the  vote  of  the  house  only  after  he  had 
polled  it  to  learn  that  a  few,  recreant  to  their  constituents,  would 
prevent  the  adoption  of  the  great  measure  under  discussion.  He 
changed  his  vote  to  ask  a  reconsideration,  coolly  saying,  "The 
record  is  made  up  and  we  must  go  to  the  country  on  this  issue 
presented." 

Concluding  this  narration  I  would  not  omit  another  mention 
here  of  Owen  Love  joy,  a  brother  of  the  Alton  martyr,  one  of  the 
first  to  confront,  and  daring  in  assault,  having  framed  a  bill  antici 
pating  the  great  amendment.  Too  early  for  his  country  he  died. 
And  I  may  add  in  passing,  that,  as  an  unmerited  compliment,  I 
took  the  places  vacated  on  committees  held  by  the  deceased. 

Small  to  the  historian  will  appear  the  space  allotted  to  most  of 
us  in  freedom's  majority,  but  the  heads  of  the  great  committees 
like  Stevens,  Morrill,  Wilson,  Schenck,  Davis,  Boutwell  and  others, 
will  appear  without  a  stain  on  their  legislative  garments — bold, 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  153 

yet  tolerant ;  the  friends  and  admirers  of  our  martyred  chief,  Lin 
coln,  not  as  a  God  dwelling  among  mortals,  but  as  one  waiting  and 
moved  by  the  divine  hand. 

On  the  constitutional  amendments  Mr.  Lincoln  leaned  in  hope 
for  their  early  passage.  It  was  the  forecast  of  statesmanship  and 
shall  be  forever  in  memorial.  His  hope  was  realized.  For  the 
Thirteenth  Amendment  there  were  one  hundred  and  twelve,  lack 
ing  two  votes  to  carry  it.  There  were  in  opposition  fifty-six.  In 
the  Senate  there  was  the  requisite  two  thirds  in  favor  of  the 
measure.  There  was  an  adjournment  waiting  for  the  verdict  of 
1864  —  Lincoln  versus  McClellan.  It  was  glorious.  The  union 
was  saved  if  the  ballots  were  decisive,  and  January  31st,  1865, 
the  rejected  amendment  was  passed  by  the  same  Congress  that 
waited  to  hear  from  the  people. 

THE    CONSTITUTIONAL    AMENDMENTS. 

The  Thirteenth  read:  Section  1st — Neither  slavery  nor  invol 
untary  servitude  except  as  a  punishment  for  crime,  whereof  the 
party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  shall  exist  in  the  United 
States  or  any  place  subject  to  their  jurisdiction. 

Section  2d— ^  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  this  article 
by  appropriate  legislation. 

The  presidential  vote  in  1864  gave  such  potency  to  the  popu 
lar  voice  as  swept  Mr.  English,  a  Connecticut  democrat,  and  Mr. 
Ganson  of  New  York,  into  the  majority  current,  voting  aye.  On 
the  taking  up  of  the  question  there  was  profound  silence,  crowded 
galleries  and  the  intensest  emotion,  while  with  solemnity  Mr. 
Thaddeus  Stevens  said,  "We  are  about  to  ascertain  the  national 
will,  by  another  vote  to  amend  the  constitution.  If  gentlemen 
opposite  will  yield  to  the  voice  of  God  and  Humanity,  and  vote  for 
it,  I  verily  believe  the  sword  of  the  destroying  angel  will  be 
stayed,  and  this  people  be  reunited.  If  we  still  harden  our  hearts, 
and  blood  must  still  flow,  may  the  ghosts  of  the  slaughtered  vic 
tims  sit  heavily  upon  the  souls  of  those  who  cause  it." 

In  the  sequel,  on  the  passage  of  the  amendment  in  the  House 
without  a  vote  to  spare,  it  was  a  happy  thought  of  Hon.  E.  C. 
Ingersoll,  the  successor  of  Mr.  Love  joy,  to  rise  and  move  that  in 
view  of  this  sublime  event  this  Congress  do  now  adjourn.  It  was 
a  scene  of  hand-shaking,  caressing,  throwing  of  hats  in  the  air,  lift- 


154  REMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

ing  a  great  burden  from  the  loyal  heart.  The  contagious  joy 
reached  the  White  House,  where  Mr.  Lincoln  was  serenaded  and 
congratulated  upon  this  amendment  vote,  which  would  be  read 
around  the  world  as  a  great  moral  victory.  The  votes  of  three 
fourths  of  the  states  soon  followed  and  made  the  amendment  a 
part  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  The  Fourteenth 
and  Fifteenth  Amendments  were  the  natural  sequences  to  the  Thir 
teenth.  They  become  a  study  in  the  light  of  subsequent  history 
and  a  necessity  in  carrying  out  the  great  purposes  of  the  founders 
of  our  government,  denying  a  state  the  power  to  deprive  any  per 
son  of  life,  liberty  or  property,  without  due  process  of  law.  It 
apportioned  representatives  among  the  states,  according  to  the 
number  of  persons,  excluding  Indians  not  taxed.  It  required  a 
vote  of  two  thirds  of  each  House  to  remove  disability,  before  per 
sons  who  had  taken  an  oath  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  had  been  engaged  in  the  rebellion,  could  be 
qualified  again  to  hold  office.  It  asserted  the  validity  of  the  pub 
lic  debts  contracted  in  the  war,  and  made  provision  for  pensions 
and  bounties,  and  denied  all  obligations  as  void  in  an  insurrection 
or  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  or  any  claim  for  the  loss  or 
emancipation  of  any  slave.  It  gave  Congress  power  to  enforce  the 
amendment  by  appropriate  legislation. 

RECONSTRUCT!  ON. 

I  meet  to  this  day  idle,  floating  reproofs  of  my  policy  in  the 
solution  of  the  great  questions  related  to  the  civil  war.  For  my 
vindication  I  could  confidently  appeal  to  the  opinions  of  colleagues. 
"Why,"  it  was  asked,  "did  you  not  adopt  Mr.  Stevens'  theory  of 
the  death  of  the  seceding  states  by  treason,  and  the  confiscation 
of  Rebel  property  to  lighten  the  war  debt  ?  "  The  answer  is  easy. 
These  schemes  could  command  only  a  majority  of  the  war  party. 
The  cities  desired  a  restoration  of  trade.  Those  who  had  seen 
the  South  in  war  desired  to  upbuild  it  in  peace,  looking  to  large 
gains  and  the  welcome  of  the  banished  poor  people;  and  their  cry 
was  "forgetfulness  and  fraternity".  A  majority  of  loyal  congress 
men  would  have  placed  every  rebel  in  arms  on  political  probation, 
and  given  a  vote  to  the  loyal  black  man,  and  to  the  white  man, 
who  could  read  his  ballot.  There  was  on  the  surface  a  good 
answer  to  this  scheme,  that  it  would  alienate  venerable  patriots 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  155 

whose  ignorance  was  not  their  fault.  It  would  leave  the  loyal 
black  man  to  suffer  for  the  crime  of  his  master  who  had  inhibited 
the  spelling-book  and  Bible.  These  questions  would  not  wait  on 
discussions  in  a  political  canvass ;  for  the  wastes  of  war,  certain 
high  taxes,  and  a  large  standing  army  to  enforce  peace  in  the 
South,  all  conspired  to  prejudice  the  timid,  tempt  the  sordid,  and 
bring  to  the  front  leaders  secretly  against  the  war,  and  awake  to 
the  promise  of  an  anti-bank  and  anti-tariff  cry  as  means  to 
secure  the  domination  of  the  old  party. 

It  is  true,  ballot-stuffing,  intimidation  and  unholy  alliances 
have  tended  to  discredit  the  wisdom  of  all  the  reconstruction  acts. 
Still,  courage  and  decision  for  the  right,  and  an  honest  administra 
tion  may,  in  the  light  of  a  most  wonderful  exploit  in  the  manage 
ment  of  our  war  debt  and  the  accretion  of  thousands  of  millions  of 
dollars  to  our  national  wealth,  secure  a  candid  recast  of  opinion 
as  the  ratification  of  the  acts  of  a  memorable  War  Congress. 

My  humble  acts  were  based  on  decided  convictions.  All  in  my 
power  in  aid  of  high  whiskey-excise  duty,  as  a  joint  economic  and 
temperance  measure,  was  done.  The  encouragements  of  enlist 
ments  of  colored  troops  under  my  resolutions,  came  to  meet  with 
favor.  A  larger  volume  of  greenback  currency  for  the  West  as  the 
debtor  states,  was  a  measure  of  justice  which  I  sought  to  push 
with  vigor.  It  is  a  fond  hope  that  General  O.  0.  Howard,  the 
Christian  soldier,  named  the  Havel ock  of  our  war,  will  not  forget 
my  intercession  with  the  Secretary  of  War,  or  the  Freedmen's 
Bureau  and  its  commissioner. 

The  following  excerpts  from  a  reconstruction  speech,  are  deci 
sive  as  to  my  radical  convictions : 


Sir,  we  are  acting  in  sublime  concert  with  the  peoples  of  the  world  now  over 
turning  the  wrong  and  remodeling  institutions  as  never  before  to  insure  popular 
rights.  The  plea  and  demand  for  suffrage  has  the  charm  of  an  inspiration  and  is  in 
alliance  with  the  power  of  Omnipotence.  It  gives  that  charmed  eloquence  to 
England's  great  reformer  which  sways  multitudes  like  the  forests  bent  by  storms, 
and  rocks  the  chief  power  of  Europe  to  its  base.  The  victorious  arms  of  Prussia 
have  enlarged  the  sympathies  of  her  nobility,  and  the  liberal  ideas  of  King 
Frederick  William  have  given  universal  suffrage  to  his  Germanic  dominions. 
Spain,  in  preparation  for  this  boon,  assures  a  free  education.  Alexander  of  Russia, 
more  considerate  than  the  late  "patriarchal  masters"  of  our  Republic,  builds 
school-houses  for  those  born  in  slavery  and  gives  them  a  homestead.  Bold  and 
timely  action  in  behalf  of  our  states  will  send  cheer  to  millions  in  the  old  world ; 
while  a  deferring  of  impartial  suffrage  will  leave  our  people  of  the  boasted  "free 
Republic  "  beneath  the  subjects  of  king  or  autocrat. 


156  REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY  TEARS. 

"  Let  us  alone,"  they  cry.  That  has  been  the  criminal's  supplication  in  all 
time.  "  Give  us  peace  and  guano,"  they  ask.  No,  that  is  not  their  great  want, 
but  the  humility  which  is  one  of  the  first  evidences  of  sorrow  for  crime  and  the 
humanity  which  will  raise  up  the  lowly  who  have  been  the  victims  of  their  des 
potism.  To  become  coequal  members  of  our  political  family  they  must  open  their 
eyes  upon  the  party  wrecks,  the  strewn  and  broken  timbers  which  tell  of  the 
ignorant  conservatism  of  captain  and  pilot.  Conservatism !  That  of  to-day  offers 
neither  a  retreat  for  the  man  nor  a  pledge  for  the  growth  and  virtue  of  his  party. 
The  idolaters  of  fossils,  who  on  all  occasions  and  with  prolonged  speech  shout 
Constitution  are  akin  to  that  class  described  by  the  Virginian  who  declared  unwit 
tingly  that  when  they  said  Union  they  meant  nigger  three  times.  They  propose 
to  save  nothing  good  which  is  really  endangered ;  and  having  intrusted  their  loco 
motion  and  progress  to  that  very  conservative  steed,  with  eyes  turned  backward  to 
his  load  and  a  facility  for  breeching  labor  rather  than  with  the  collar  they  make 
only  such  down-hill  strides  as  are  easy  and  convenient  to  that  memorable  abode  of 
the  chief  conservatives  of  our  time,  the  slough  of  despond.  All  compassionate 
generals,  sparing  of  ammunition,  fearful  of  the  temper  of  their  sword  —  all  neutral 
states  and  political  constitutional  saviors  have  their  day,  and  are  to  sleep  with  the 
Bourbons  of  all  nations. 

Will  the  party  that  has  amid  the  throes  of  civil  war  become  strong,  heed  the 
prejudices  of  ignorance,  fearing  its  vinous  inspiration,  and  dare  to  be  unjust  by 
neglect  of  those  now  imperiled  who,  in  great  numbers,  without  the  hope  of  pro 
motion,  went  from  under  the  lash  and  stole  away  from  the  slave-pen,  or  broke  from 
the  coffee-gang  to  nurse  our  sick,  pilot  our  armies,  or  take  their  place  in  the  ranks 
of  our  brave  soldiery  ?  Then  it  will  be  denied  the  pleasure  of  gleaning  from  these 
fields  "  where  the  red  rain  makes  the  grass  grow  "  ;  then  the  humble  laborers  who 
have  made  our  majorities  at  the  polls,  remembering  that  the  royal  arms  of  Lilliput 
were  an  angel  lifting  a  lame  beggar  from  the  earth,  will  retire  in  sadness  and 
abjure  your  party  creed.  Those  religious  denominations,  representing  the  con 
viction  and  zeal  of  millions,  have,  in  their  late  annual  gatherings,  spoken  with 
united  voice  for  that  comprehensive  justice  which  no  constitutional  amendment 
now  proposed  will  assure,  and  the  conditions  of  their  future  cooperation  must  be 
our  adherence  to  principle  and  the  recognition  of  a  God  in  our  history. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  do  not  despair  of  the  adoption  of  a  safe  and  radical  policy. 
Our  long  marches  and  decisive  battles  have  a  parallel  in  mighty  civic  victories 
which  have  a  voice  for  the  timid. 

"Lowly  faithful,  banish  fear, 

Right  onward  drive  unharmed ; 
The  port,  well  worth  the  cruise,  is  near, 
And  every  wave  is  charmed." 

That  clemency  of  the  conqueror  to  rebels,  as  shown  by  president  and  Congress, 
has  brought  out  a  timely  development  of  the  proud  unsubdued  spirit  which  would 
dictate  the  terms  of  restoration.  I  regard  it  as  related  to  a  wonderful  chain  in 
God's  provinces.  Our  first  Bull  Run  defeat,  which  menaced  this  capital,  awak 
ened  the  moral  sense  of  the  nation  to  its  crimes,  and  pointed  out  our  dangers  and 
duties.  It  was  preparatory  to  the  warning  proclamation  of  President  Lincoln  in 
September,  1862,  which  traitors  in  arms  would  not  heed,  and  was  followed  by  the 
loss  of  slavery,  that  for  which  they  began  the  war.  And  now  when  they  scorn  the 
mildest  terms  of  conciliation  ever  made  to  rebellious  spirits,  the  question  of  rights 
and  ballots  for  the  long  degraded  and  defenseless,  need  not  be  committed  to  the 
caprice  or  love  of  power  reigning  with  the  dominant  class.  Let  history  speak  with 


REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY  YEARS.  15T 

her  trumpet  tongue  from  the  graves  of  nations  that  consented  to  the  degradation 
of  their  meanest  subjects,  and  if  wise  we  shall  he  warned  hy  the  fatal  compromises 
made  by  our  fathers,  and  now  about  to  shape  the  destinies  of  millions  shall  not 
forget  His  paternal  care  of  those  who  survived  the  slavery  of  Egypt,  the  perils  of 
the  sea,  and  wanderings  in  the  wilderness,  in  giving  them  homes,  protection 
from  enemies,  and  wise  and  devoted  friends. 

I  regard  it  as  a  delusion  that  representation  here  by  the  rebel  states  will 
strengthen  or  assimilate  the  nation.  Congeniality  of  spirit  is  a  prerequisite.  Le,t 
the  disloyal  spirit  just  evinced  at  a  fair  held  in  this  city  be  exorcised,  where  the 
ballots  for  the  rebel  general,  Lee,  were  as  six  to  one  for  our  great  captain,  General 
Grant ;  let  rebel  airs  no  longer  on  festive  occasions  drown  our  national  song,  and  if 
there  be  a  loyal  pulsation  let  it  bring  out  the  stars  and  stripes  so  long  overlain  with 
the  rattlesnake  flag ;  unlock  the  cemetery  gates  closed  against  the  sable  patriots 
who  would  strew  the  flowers  of  affection  on  the  graves  of  their  comrades ;  bid  the 
Lone  Star  State  desist  in  her  demands  for  the  removal  of  our  dead  from  their 
graveyards,  that  the  dust  of  "hireling  soldiers"  mingle  not  with  that  of  her 
"noble  and  heroic  dead  "  ;  make  political  preferment  in  city  and  county  possible  to 
a  Unionist,  and,  for  the  time,  penitents  should  detain  their  sons  from  the  college 
lectures  on  moral  philosophy  by  ex-pirate  Semmes, 


"  The  mildest  mannered  man 
That  ever  scuttled  ship,  or  cut  a  human  throat " ; 

and  at  least  when  safe  and  convenient  arrest  defiant  murderers  at  large,  that  the 
cry  "I  am  a  loyal  American  citizen"  be  no  more  the  signal  for  a  visitation  of 
cruelty  if  he  be  an  American  citizen  of  African  descent. 

Demons  stood  aghast  at  the  cruelties  unatoned  for  endured  by  our  prisoners, 
and  hell  doubtless  waits  for  the  coming  of  those  leaders  in  rebellion  whom  we 
seem  to  have  no  laws  to  punish.  Strange  that  they  should  desire  a  return  on  any 
terms,  and  more  strange  our  leniency,  and  that  we  have  not  met  the  expectations 
of  the  country  and  made  impartial  suffrage  a  condition.  This  withheld,  my  vote 
for  their  return  will  not  be  given.  Never,  never ! 

The  shame  of  so-called  patriots  in  opposing  the  policies  of  the 
war  party  should  have  brought  confession,  but  rather  angered 
those  who  had  been  defeated  at  every  step.  Those  amendments 
which  were  designed  to  forbid  slavery  and  to  protect  the  poor  were 
not  supported  by  the  anti-war  party.  This  alone  was  enough  to 
place  obstructionists  at  the  North  under  suspicion  as  to  future 
acts.  Not  as  prodigals,  then,  did  the  South  come  back,  but  to  affil 
iate  with  the  most  dangerous  foes  of  the  Union  at  the  North. 
Trade  and  commerce  wanted  peace  and  outvoted  the  radicals. 

There  was  an  unholy  combination,  a  purpose  to  depreciate  loy 
alty  and  place  at  the  head  of  the  table  the  McGregors,  conferring 
honor  on  future  dispensers  of  power.  The  bugbear  of  carpet-bag 
gers  at  the  South  was  kept  up  after  their  offenses  ceased.  Then  a 
cry  of  civil  service  was  taken  up  by  the  artful  as  a  species  of  Phar- 


158  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

asaic  cant  to  aid  a  few,  too  cold-blooded  for  the  crisis,  to  hold  the 
balance  of  power  and  to  care  for  the  few  of  the  clan,  a  minority 
able  to  mass  their  forces  in  aid  of  Bourbonism.  It  was  to  copy 
England ;  keep  in  the  old  paths  and  fill  places  of  trust  in  disregard 
of  party  policies  and  service  under  the  flag. 

It  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  last  twenty-five  years  that  the 
fears  of  radical  reconstructionists  of  the  war  period  have  been  real 
ized,  under  the  temptations  of  political  power  and  a  morbid  idea 
that  the  elevation  of  ex-slaves  to  positions  of  honor  would  be  for 
the  degradation  of  ex-masters.  I  am  not  unmindful  of  a  low  prej 
udice  North  fanning  an  unholy  flame  which  nothing  less  than  jus 
tice  and  the  highest  dictates  of  religion  will  suppress.  In  1872, 
joining  the  liberal  movement  that  nominated  Horace  Greeley,  and 
putting  behind  me  promotion  in  my  own  party,  I  made  a  conscien 
tious  sacrifice  to  test  and  win  our  late  enemies,  and  I  now  the 
more  regret,  in  the  light  of  false  counts,  terror  and  assassinations, 
that  there  had  not  been  a  territorial  probation  before  an  admission 
of  states  to  full  fellowship  in  the  family.  For  reasons  which  are 
public  we  detained  Utah,  knocking  for  admission.  Statesmanship 
would  have  kept  the  reins  of  power  with  the  party  that  had  saved 
the  union,  until  time  should  blend  as  equals  the  sons  of  those  who 
upheld  and  those  who  trampled  on  the  flag. 

It  is  too  late  to  moralize,  but  not  for  thanks  that  a  tariff,  a 
basis  of  hope  for  the  soldiers,  returned  to  industrial  pursuits,  has 
not  been  destroyed.  The  wordy  goodyism  of  the  southern  Gradys, 
when  avowing  the  place  of  a  colored  man  to  be  under  the  yoke  of 
sham  patriots,  does  not  find  a  response  from  those  who  have 
trusted  in  the  act  of  Congress  which  forbade  slavery  or  involun 
tary  servitude  in  any  of  the  territories  of  the  United  States,  or  on 
any  soil  of  which  the  nation  should  hereafter  become  possessed. 
This  greatly  embittered  the  border  and  democratic  representatives, 
while  making  appeals  to  the  country  which  only  malignity  could 
inspire. 

The  curtain  falls  and  the  second  War  Congress  disperses.  Cau- 
*tion  like  fear  has  given  way  to  rapture.  The  value  of  the  black 
man  as  a  soldier  has  been  recognized.  He  has  become  assured  of 
personal  liberty  and  the  ballot,  by  the  devices  of  Congress  and 
the  passage  of  the  constitutional  amendments.  A  great  financial 
scheme  and  an  anchor  is  found  in  the  national  banking  system. 
The  American  protective  policy  survives  the  assaults  of  ex-rebels 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  159 

and  free-traders.  Foreign  intervention  came  to  an  end  with  the 
overthrow  of  the  French  in  Mexico,  and  the  execution  of  Arch 
Duke  Maximilian.  Victories  on  land  and  sea  drove  the  "  Knights 
of  the  Golden  Circle  "  into  secrecy,  placing  the  leaders  in  the  roll 
of  reprobates  and  in  pillory  to  the  scorn  of  the  world.  Their  favor 
ite  for  the  presidency  received  but  the  votes  of  the  states  of  New 
Jersey,  Delaware  and  Kentucky,  a  total  of  twenty-one  votes,  leav 
ing  one  hundred  and  ninety-one  as  Mr.  Lincoln's  electoral  major 
ity.  The  most  conspicuous  members  of  this  Congress  were 
re-elected.  The  rebellion  was  soon  crushed,  but  there  was  a  sad 
hiatus  in  the  apostasy  of  Andrew  Johnson,  vice-president  on  the 
assassination  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  April  14th,  1865. 

THE    PRESS    REPORTERS. 

As  the  able  press  reporters,  more  influential  than  many  who 
had  seats  011  the  floor,  are  an  important  adjunct  of  Congress,  they 
fitly  come  in  here  for  some  notice.  My  sympathy  with  the  men  of 
the  press  has  always  been  strong.  Indeed,  among  my  escapes,  I 
came  near  being  an  editor.  Early,  after  much  hesitation,  I 
declined  a  newspaper  partnership  offered  by  one  who  had  knowl 
edge  of  my  tastes.  It  has  been  my  lot  to  write  the  salutatory  for 
two  newspapers,  and  a  valedictory  for  one,  while  freely  indulging 
a  pen  for  the  airing  of  my  opinions,  and  pushing  on  social  and 
political  schemes,  not  to  mention  the  calls  for  contributions  by  the 
various  reformers  who  have  arisen  the  last  thirty  years. 

It  is  the  habit  of  the  press  to  claim  that  out  of  very  poor 
material  it  has  made  conspicuous  actors,  and  that  it  never  has  been 
repaid  for  the  blunders  it  has  averted,  and  the  venality  of  public 
officials  it  has  exposed.  I  think  I  could  name  a  score  of  public 
characters  whom  the  scribblers  claim  to  have  "got  up".  Long 
before  entering  Congress,  while  but  a  visitor,  passing  down  the 
capitol  ground,  I  heard  this  colloquy : 

"  That  speech  of  yours  this  morning  was  the  best  effort  of  your 
life,  but  I  thought  of  some  things  you  could  have  hung  on  to  it,  to^ 
brighten  the  points."  The  M.  C.  answered,  "Glad  you  think  so; 
I  had  not  much  preparation  and  am  going  out  of  town.  Here,  I 
trust  you  (handing  over  a  gold  piece)  to  fix  it  up  for  the  Morning 
Globe"  I  judged  it  was  a  cheap  but  good  investment  by  the 
praise  which  the  speech,  revised,  brought  to  the  author.  He  is  yet 


160  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

alive,  too  indolent,  it  is  said,  to  correct  his  speeches,  but  for  forty 
years  in  the  line  of  special  favors. 

Popular  speech-makers  are  as  rare  as  born  poets  or  model  legis 
lators,  and,  when  a  constituency  demands  an  utterance  by  their 
member,  he  must  speak ;  and  then  appears,  not  the  man  tailor,  but 
the  professional  literary  aid,  to  astonish  the  readers  with  the 
speaker's  gifts,  until  then  undiscovered.  This  is  not  of  necessity  a 
vicious  method  in  moulding  public  sentiment,  since  it  is  often  true 
that  a  correct  thinker,  a  royal  man,  often  lacks  the  skill  to  clothe 
his  opinions  in  their  proper  garb. 

Time  makes  new  demands.  He  was  once  regarded  as  a  genius 
who  could  report  a  speech  in  its  spirit,  before  the  era  of  short 
hand.  The  great  debaters  did  not  indulge  in  written  speeches,  and 
the  polishing  by  a  reporter  was  a  welcome  aid.  The  newer  art, 
which  a  dull  boy  with  an  acute  ear  can  learn,  makes  less  the 
scholar  and  rhetorician  who  is  a  reporter.  It  is  now  the  question 
who  can  best  grasp  the  subject,  group  the  headland  facts,  report 
graphically  the  actors,  and  outline  future  skirmishes  and  the  issue 
of  debates.  In  conversation  with  Mr.  Greeley,  I  remember  that  he 
said  it  was  his  most  difficult  task  to  get  the  right  man  to  sit  in  the 
galleries,  and  one  who  also  had  a  welcome  at  the  departments  to 
find  the  freshest  news. 

From  those  with  whom  I  became  personally  acquainted  I  could 
make  a  list.  They  would  make  a  roll  of  claimants  to  a  large  share 
of  honors,  especially  in  the  exposures  of  the  base  in  politics.  If 
an  ambition  to  reach  a  seat  in  Congress  cannot  be  gratified  there 
is  another  school  of  opportunity  and  service  in  connection  with 
the  press.  Was  it  D'Israeli,  while  a  member  of  Parliament,  who 
said,  "I  am  myself  a  gentleman  of  the  press  and  have  no  other 
escutcheon  "  ? 

Ben  Perley  Poor,  not  long  since  deceased,  was  a  Senate  official 
for  thirty  or  more  years,  and  an  amateur  Massachusetts  farmer, 
while  holding  a  veteran's  rank  in  Newspaper  Row.  His  conceits 
were  pardonable,  for  he  was  loyal  to  his  convictions,  if  seemingly 
intolerant.  General  S.  Y.  Boynton,  of  the  Cincinnati  and  West 
ern  Press,  had  the  rare  gifts  of  a  Washington  correspondent  — 
perseverance  in  a  hunt,  and  a  talent  for  sharp  criticism,  but  not 
always  of  mature  and  impartial  judgment. 

Dr.  George  Alfred  Townsend  with  the  nom-de-plume  of  "  Gath  ", 
has  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  startled  the  public  by  discovery,  and 


EEMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS.  161 

been  feared  and  berated  as  the  Bohemian  of  his  time.  I  think  he 
commanded  the  largest  pay  by  the  column  of  any  correspondent, 
for  his  original  researches,  brilliant  sketches  and  political  predic 
tions  as  to  success  or  defeat.  Levi  P.  Morton,  our  Vice-President, 
found  in  him  an  elegant  biographer  and  friend,  whose  rare  gifts 
and  delineation  are  known  without  passing  through  a  forest  of  ver 
biage.  Mr.  John  Bigelow  of  New  York,  who  was  a  quiet  looker-on 
from  the  gallery  in  the  service  of  Bryant's  Evening  Post,  later 
became  minister  to  France,  serving  his  country  with  the  skill  of  a 
diplomat,  and  the  protege  and  executor  of  his  personal  friend,  Sam 
uel  J.  Tilden. 

Horace  White,  after  college  graduation,  became  a  Senate  com 
mittee-clerk  and  correspondent  in  Washington,  and  later  the  man 
aging  editor  of  the  Chicago  Tribune,  especially  conspicuous  in  the 
Liberal  Greeley  campaign,  together  with  Whitelaw  Eeid,  and  Sam 
uel  Bowles  of  the" Springfield  Republican.  On  the  death  of  the 
poet,  William  Cullen  Bryant,  of  the  New  York  Evening  Post,  Mr. 
White  became  the  purchaser  of  that  sheet,  amassing  a  fortune 
while  retaining  the  editorship,  with  the  rank  of  a  severe  critic 
rather  than  a  trusted  party  leader.  Colfax  of  Indiana,  Baldwin  of 
the  Worcester  Spy,  and  Wood,  Brooks  and  Raymond  of  New  York, 
sent  out  editorials  from  Washington,  quoted  as  of  high  authority. 

Horace  Greeley  of  the  Tribune  had  the  sagacity  to  select  and 
retain  as  correspondent  that  accomplished  gentleman  J.  L.  Pike  of 
Maine,  later  our  minister  to  the  Netherlands.  Samuel ,  Wilkinson, 
who  married  the  sister  of  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  had  held  for 
many  years  the  pen  of  a  graphic  writer,  and  for  twenty  years  was 
secretary  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railway ;  he  was  widely  copied 
as  a  skillful  delineator  of  great  characters  and  passing  events. 
"Richelieu"  was  the  nom-de-plume  of  the  young  Irishman  Robinson, 
nearly  forty  years  ago,  a  severe  caricaturist,  and  taking  especial 
delight  in  "twisting  the  tail  of  the  British  Lion"  for  the  New 
York  Tribune.  With  a  residence  in  Brooklyn,  he  became  a  sensa 
tional  democratic  member  of  Congress,  where  he  took  little  pride 
in  his  position,  and,  as  he  told  me,  found  less  pleasure  than  in  a^ 
hunt  for  news  and  the  characters  whom  he  could  describe  without 
a  fear  of  a  call  to  order.  His  collisions  were  sharp  and  frequent 
on  the  floor. 

"Agate"  was  the  best  known,  sharp,  learned  and  courteous 
correspondent  of  the  New  York  Tribune  in  the  war  epoch.  He 


162  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

found  easy  promotion  to  the  chair  of  assistant  editor.  On  the 
death  of  Mr.  Greeley  he  became  a  large  stockholder  and  its  manag 
ing  editor;  and  this  "Agate"  was  Whitelaw  Keid,  our  accom 
plished  minister  plenipotentiary  to  France,  whose  official  service 
has  won  for  him  higher  honors  than  the  delicate  attentions  to  the 
wants  of  his  countrymen  and  his  elegant  hospitality.  He  magni 
fied  his  journalistic  office  in  long  service  as  well  as  in  his  verse : 

"Ah,  no!  to  the  day-dawn  of  knowledge  and  glory, 

A  far  brighter  noon-tide  refulgence  succeeds, 
And  our  art  shall  embalm  through  all  ages  in  story, 

Her  champion  who  triumphs  —  her  martyr  who  bleeds; 
And  proudly  her  sons  shall  recall  their  devotion, 

While  millions  shall  listen  to  honor  and  bless, 
Till  there  bursts  a  response  from  the  heart's  strong  emotion, 

And  the  earth  echoes  deep  with  "  Long  life  to  the  Press!  " 

It  is  now  my  conviction  that  no  vocation"  in  war  time  gave 
better  opportunities  than  the  reporter's  for  the  mending  of  weak 
points  in  our  political  harness,  or  the  detection  and  exposures  of 
the  lapses  and  weaknesses  of  public  servants.  I  have  no  defense 
of  mere  sensationalism,  nor  can  I  deny  that  some  reporters  at 
Washington  retired  rich,  and  not  by  legitimate  methods. 


CHAPTEE  XL 

A  Personal  Assault — Freedman's  Bureau  the  Occasion  with  the 
Apostasy  of  Andrew  Johnson — James  F.  Wilson — Freedom  of 
Speech — General  Rousseau  reprimanded  by  the  House — His 
Death. 

A  PAINFUL  congressional  episode  cannot  well  be  omitted.  It 
throws  light  on  a  period  of  intense  bitterness,  and  was  connected 
with  the  relapse  of  an  accidental  president.  It  is  also  an  exposure 
of  the  barbarism  of  slavery,  depicted  by  Jefferson,  and  is  of  a 
piece  with  the  cruel  inhumanities  of  later  periods.  We  all  are 
interested  in  the  defense  of  free  speech  against  the  assaults  of  vio 
lence.  There  was  no  ground  for  the  loose  assertion  of  the  unthink 
ing  that  an  unarmed  man  of  peace  should,  in  return,  have  killed  in 
cool  blood  his  assailant.  The  action  of  Congress  reflects  credit 
upon  the  body,  in  the  infliction  of  a  non-partisan  punishment,  and 
verifies  the  sentiment  of  the  wisest,  that  "  He  that  ruleth  his  own 
spirit  is  greater  than  he  that  taketh  a  city".  To  the  honor  of  Con 
gress  it  may  be  said  that  there  has  been  no  repetition  of  a  kindred 
assault  in  the  last  twenty-five  years. 

It  is  personally  distasteful  to  call  up  the  incidents  of  an  assault 
for  words  spoken  in  debate.  Still,  the  hasty  public  judgment  that 
I  should  have  fought  my  assailant,  and,  without  his  apology,  taken 
the  life  of  a  criminal,  required  a  statement  of  facts  with  legitimate 
deductions  even  after  the  lapse  of  twenty  years. 

I  never  saw  a  man  struck  by  another  with  a  blow  in  anger  until 
I  was  called  to  in  a  friendly  voice  on  the  porch  of  the  capitol  of 
Washington,  and  assaulted  by  a  cane  in  the  hands  of  General  Rous 
seau  of  Kentucky.  He  was  a  pugilist,  over  six  feet  in  height, 
weighing  fully  two  hundred  pounds,  and  armed  with  pistols.  I 
had  not  even  a  pen-knife  by  me,  and  was  physically  unable  to 
resent  his  assault.  The  sequel  will  show  how  fully  afterwards  he 
was  in  my  power,  that  heavy  drinking  was  held  to  mitigate  the 


104  REMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY    TEARS. 

offense,  and  that  on  his  death-bed  not  long  after  he  sent  me  a 
frank,  if  late,  apology. 

POLITICS    THE    OCCASION,    NOT    PERSONAL    HONOR. 

It  was  early  in  the  year  1866,  and  Andrew  Johnson,  relapsed 
from  professions  of  friendship  for  the  colored  people  of  the  South, 
had  become  their  enemy.  The  Freedman's  Bureau,  in  charge  of 
General  0.  0.  Howard,  became  to  ex-slave  owners  an  intense  object 
of  aversion.  Mr.  Rousseau  had  the  credit  of  a  membership  in  the 
"back-stairs  cabinet7';  also  of  a  failure  as  a  legislator.  He  sought 
notoriety  in  another  role,  and  was  prominent  in  the  convivial  circle 
whereof  the  president  was  a  disgraceful  oracle.  He  antagonized 
every  law  which  looked  to  a  just  protection  of  the  colored  people. 
Then  there  was  being  made  a  wider  chasm  to  separate  the  repub 
lican  party  from  their  accidental  president,  who  turned  to  mass 
the  South,  before  his  bitter  enemies,  into  serviceable  political 
cohorts.  Denunciation  of  the  North  was  powerless  to  do  what  an 
assault,  on  the  plea  of  avenging  wounded  honor,  might  effect  in 
drawing  sectional  lines  and  giving  power  to  Johnson  in  a  dissi 
pated  career. 

This  is,  in  part,  the  record.  The  House  having  under  consider 
ation  the  bill  to  enlarge  the  powers  of  the  Freedman's  Bureau,  I  as 
a  member  of  the  special  committee  and  selected  to  lead  in  the 
debate,  said:  "This  bill  has  been  carefully  considered  in  commit 
tee.  It  is  endorsed  in  its  main  features  by  General  Howard  of  the 
Bureau,  General  Grant  and  Secretary  Stanton."  I  showed  the 
abuses  of  the  colored  people  in  Kentucky  and  the  desperate  opposi 
tion  of  the  delegation  from  that  state,  headed  by  General  Rousseau. 
I  denied  that  it  was  a  partial  bill,  and  declared  that  it  was  framed 
to  reach  those  in  want,  even  the  White  Mountain  refugees,  espe 
cially  the  poor  and  homeless.  The  long-enslaved  were  our  friends, 
yet  had  been  kind  and  considerate  in  long  and  abject  service  to 
now  cold-blooded  masters.  Continuing  I  said : 

It  is  the  Christian  duty  of  this  government,  as  it  has  been  the  duty  of  the 
various  philanthropic  societies  and  religious  associations,  to  take  care  of  these  peo 
ple.  At  the  homes  of  the  sons  of  the  pilgrims  on  our  remotest  prairies  contribu- 
ions  are  made  for  the  refugees  and  freedmen ;  and  the  Society  of  Friends,  who 
have  gauged  the  numbers  and  wants  of  these  suffering  people,  hid  among  the 
mountains  in  camps  and  hospitals,  have  set  us  an  example  of  fidelity.  They  could 
not  take  up  arms  with  a  good  conscience,  yet  they  were  the  first  in  the  hospitals 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS.  165 

and  the  longest  there,  refusing  to  receive  compensation,  munificent  in  their  quiet 
charities;  and  now  they  come  to  us  from  Maryland  and  all  our  states,  asking  pro 
tection  for  their  agents  and  schools.  Their  school-houses  have  been  burned  since 
the  sitting  of  this  Congress,  and  so  near  to  us  that  the  very  flames  of  the  conflagra 
tion  might  have  lighted  up  this  capitol. 

Mr.  Speaker,  there  is  to-day  devolved  upon  us  —  I  care  not  who  decries  it;  I 
will  not  evade  it  —  a  high,  solemn  and  religious  duty.  We  should  be  worse  than 
barbarians  to  leave  these  people  where  they  are,  landless,  poor,  unprotected ;  and 
I  como>end  to  gentlemen  who  still  cling  to  the  delusion  that  all  is  well,  to  take 
lesson^  of  the  Czar  of  the  Russians,  who,  when  he  enfranchised  his  people,  gave 
the>n  lands  and  school-houses,  and  invited  schoolmasters  from  all  the  world  to 
come  there  and  instruct  them.  Let  us  hush  our  national  songs;  rather  gird  on 
sack-cloth,  if  wanting  in  moral  courage  to  reap  the  fruits  of  our  war  by  being  just 
and  Considerate  to  those  who  look  up  to  us  for  temporary  counsel  and  protection. 
Care  and  education  are  cheaper  for  the  nation  than  neglect,  and  nothing  less  than 
tliis  bill  will  meet  the  demands  of  statesmanship  and  humanity. 

I  am  ready  to  yield  my  preferences  and  co-operate  with  all  sections,  knowing 
that  we  rise  or  fall  together  in  national  character.  I  would  have  nothing  partial 
or  sectional,  nor  by  a  word  or  act  hinder  a  state  in  the  march  to  the  noble  position 
which  her  generosity  or  heroism  may  give  title.  To  even  that  state  which  is  so 
unwilling  to  receive  a  nation's  dispensations  to  her  poor,  I  would  give  a  proud  and 
commanding  position  among  our  commonwealths. 

Kear  the  conclusion  of  an  hour's  speech  I  said :  "  This  discus 
sion  is  plainly  not  promotive  of  the  most  commendable  temper. 
The  honorable  gentleman  from  Kentucky,  Mr.  Rousseau,  declared 
on  Saturday,  as  I  caught  his  language,  that  if  he  were  arrested  on 
the  complaint  of  a  negro,  and  brought  before  one  of  the  agents  of 
this  bureau,  when  he  became  free  he  would  shoot  him.  Is  that 
civilization  ?  It  is  the  spirit  of  barbarism  that  has  long  dwelt  in 
our  land;  the  spirit  of  the  infernal  regions  that  brought  on  our 
war." 

On  a  challenge  of  my  statements,  I  used  this  language,  which 
gave  offense ;  proposing  to  extract  or  qualify  it,  if  not  true : 

MB.  GRIHNELL.  History  repeats  itself.  I  care  not  whether  the  gentleman 
was  four  years  in  the  war  on  the  Union  side  or  four  years  on  the  other  side ;  I  say 
that  he  degraded  his  state  and  uttered  a  sentiment  I  thought  unworthy  of  an 
American  officer  when  he  said  that  he  would  do  such  an  act  on  the  complaint  of  a 
negro  against  him. 

After  Mr.  Rousseau  had  risen  to  a  question  of  privilege  and 
attempted  a  denial  of  the  language  as  reported  in  the  Globe,  I  said: 

"I  give  the  member  the  full  benefit  of  an  explanation  of  his 
declaration  that  he  would  kill  a  white  officer  acting  under  oath  and 
in  the  discharge  of  his  duty,  if  that  is  a  less  unworthy  act  than 
to  shoot  an  American  citizen  of  African  descent.  That  may  not 


166  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS. 

have  been  degrading  to  his  state,  and  whether  it  was,  as  I  said, 
language  unbecoming  an  American  officer  is  a  question  which  I 
shall  refer  to  the  gallant  soldiers  of  the  State  of  Iowa  who  never 
fought,  thank  God !  but  on  one  side,  and  it  may  properly  be 
decided  by  the  code  of  the  first  of  American  generals,  and  referred 
to  the  greatest  of  American  captains,  the  Lieutenant-General  of 
the  United  States.* 

"  I  have  nothing  more  to  add,  only  to  repeat  that  my  animus 
toward  the  member  was  the  kindest.  I  criticised  barbarous  laws 
and  his  language  from  a  sense  of  duty,  and  I  have  given  his  own 
language  in  justice  to  him,  although  he  first  used  the  unparlia 
mentary  language  toward  me,  which,  as  I  repeat,  I  regarded  as  no 
personal  offense." 

The  friction  between  the  president  and  Congress  increased,  up 
to  the  time  General  Rousseau  in  New  York  alluded  to  the  member 
from  Iowa  as  "a  pitiable  politician",  and  my  rejoinder  in  ridicule 
and  denial  of  his  pretensions  in  leading  Iowa  soldiers,  is  not  mate 
rial.  The  "fire  eaters"  demanded  from  him  a  speech  or  blows. 
He  called  me  to  halt  under  the  guise  of  a  friendly  voice. 

A  TRIAL. 

This  being  the  second  offense  of  the  kind  in  the  history  of  the 
government,  a  select  committee  was  appointed  to  investigate  and 
report,  which  they  did,  the  majority  proposing  a  reprimand  for 
both.  The  House  vote  was  a  reprimand  for  my  assailant,  but  none 
for  me. 

The  special  committee  for  the  investigation  of  the  assault  by  General 
Rosseau  upon  Mr.  Grinnell,  held  a  meeting  yesterday.  The  evidence  taken 
conclusively  established  the  fact  that  Rosseau  formally  informed  one  person  of 
his  intention  to  attack  Mr.  Grinnell  on  Thursday  morning,  and  asked  him  to  act 
as  his  friend  in  the  matter,  but  that  no  less  than  three  persons  were  present,  armed, 
on  his  side.  Two  or  three  persons,  one  of  whom  was  Colonel  Pennybaker  of  Ken 
tucky,  admitted  that  they  were  armed  with  loaded  pistols.  This  testimony  tends 
to  show  that  Kosseau  and  his  party  were  bent  upon  bringing  on  a  bloody  affair, 
and  that  had  Mr.  Grinnell  offered  the  slightest  resistance,  he  would  have  been 
killed  without  doubt. 

The  following  is  a  statement  of  Mr.  Grinnell  before  the  committee  on  the 
evening  of  the  19th : 

As  I  was  passing  out  of  the  rotunda  I  was  seized  by  Mr.  Kosseau,  who,  swear 
ing,  said,  "I  want  an  apology."  To  which  I  replied,  "You  are  the  one  to  apol- 

*  While  the  papers  were  discussing  the  assault,  General  Grant  said  to  me, 
"  The  cowardly  assault  is  reprobated  by  every  honorable  soldier,  while  your  criti 
cism  was  severe  but  just." 


EEMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  167 

ogize;  you  began  the  attack;  I  have  no  apology  to  make."  Placing  his  hand  on 
his  breast,  to  draw  a  weapon,  I  seized  him  by  the  collar,  when  he  struck  me  five 
or  six  times  over  the  face  with  a  cane  having  an  iron  end,  until  it  was  broken.  I 
said,  "You  have  assaulted  me  in  the  House,  but  I  have  no  desire  to  hurt  you." 
He  said,  "  You  d — d  coward,  I  want  to  disgrace  you."  I  said,  "  You  cannot  do  it. 
I  only  defended  myself  in  debate."  He  continued  swearing,  when  I  said,  "If  the 
crowd  is  done  with  me,  I  will  leave,"  and  picked  up  a  piece  of  the  cane  and 
walked  away.  I  was  alone  and  saw  him  surrounded  by  friends.  I  did  not  resist, 
presuming  there  was  a  purpose  to  assassinate  me.  I  have  suffered  considerably 
from  injuries  in  the  face  and  on  the  shoulders,  received  from  the  iron  point  of  the 
cane. —  Washington  Correspondent. 


My  treatment  of  the  blustering  general  was  salutary.  It  ended 
his  retort,  "  When  were  you  in  the  war  ?  "  and  my  reply  was  pleas 
ing  to  generals  of  real  fame.  Of  those  who  stood  up  in  my  defense, 
were  the  Hon.  James  F.  Wilson,  Thaddeus  Stevens  and  Generals 
Banks  and  Garfield,  who  spoke  against  the  assaulting  party  and 
asked  for  an  expulsion.  These  points  were  made  by  Mr.  Wilson 
in  his  arraignment :  that  there  had  been  in  the  assault  a  flagrant 
violation  of  the  constitution ;  that  honors  were  easy  as  to  the  use 
of  language  in  personality,  but  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky  had 
been  wounded  and  worsted  in  debate,  and  had  fallen  on  the  shield 
of  his  military  record.  Mr.  Wilson,  amid  frequent  interruptions, 
carried  the  house  in  his  arraignment  of  mock  chivalry  so  fully 
that  no  one  cared  to  reply;  and,  on  a  call  for  my  reproof,  there 
was  not  a  member  to  call  for  a  vote  of  the  house.  This  was  the 
conclusion  of  his  argument  : 


"Sir,  we  have  had  too  much  'impression'  about  this  case  already;  altogether 
too  much  'impression'.  Instead  of  being  guided  by  the  imprint  which  the  official 
types  have  made  upon  the  official  records  of  this  House,  the  impressions  of  gentle 
men  have  been  resorted  to.  This  is  the  case  so  far  as  the«words  used  in  debate 
are  concerned.  But  I  am  not  ready  to  yield  the  case  to  the  gentleman  from  Ken 
tucky  yet.  There  is  one  other  thing  worthy  of  our  attention.  After  my  colleague 
had  responded  to  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky,  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky 
sought  the  floor  again  to  reply.  He  did  reply  to  what  was  said  on  that  occasion  by 
my  colleague,  and  he  closed  his  reply  in  this  language : 

"  '  I  hope  now  that  I  have  heard  the  last  of  the  member  from  Iowa.  I  hope  I 
shall  never  have  occasion  to  recur  to  the  subject  again.  Whatever  glory  he  has 
gained  in  this  contest  I  am  content  he  should  wear.' 

"  Such,  sir,  was  the  parting  language  of  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky  to  my 
colleague.  He  in  effect  declared  that  he  desired  to  hear  nothing  more  in  relation 
to  the  case ;  that  he  desired  to  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  my  colleague.  With 
that  declaration  imprinted  upon  the  records,  the  member  from  Kentucky  deliber 
ates  for  four  days — 'expecting  an  apology,'  though  he  had  not  notified  my  col- 


168  REMINISCENCES  OF  FOETT  YEAES. 


league  that  he  would  not  receive  one ;  and  closing  in  the  House  with  the  remarks 
I  have  just  quoted,  again  notifying  my  colleague  that  he  wanted  nothing  to  do 
with  him,  the  belligerents  retired  from  the  field.  All  was  at  peace  so  far  as  that 
controversy  was  concerned.  '  I  won't  receive  an  apology ;  I  do  not  want  an  apol 
ogy.  The  storm  is  over.  I  am  satisfied  with  what  I  have  made,  and  if  the  gentle 
man  from  Iowa  is  satisfied  with  the  laurels  he  has  won,  let  him  wear  them ;  I  am 
content.'  Four  days  passed;  and  what  then  do  we  find?  The  gentleman  from 
Kentucky  seeks  my  colleague  on  the  eastern  portico  of  this  capitol,  and  there 
administers  to  him  a  caning  —  for  what?  Why,  sir,  as  the  record  shows,  for  lan 
guage  used  in  debate  in  this  House,  for  which  the  Constitution  which  the  member 
from  Kentucky  swore  to  support  and  maintain,  declares  no  member  shall  be  ques 
tioned  elsewhere.  Now,  it  may  be  that  there  is  nothing  but  sunshine  on  that  side 
of  the  case ;  but  I  want  to  know  from  members  whether  they  are  to  be  driven  or 
coaxed  away  from  their  duty  of  maintaining  sacredly  the  privileges  of  this  body 
by  any  sympathy  that  persons  may  seek  to  create  here  in  behalf  of  the  gentleman 
from  Kentucky,  who  seems  to  be  so  abundantly  able  to  take  caro  of  himself,  and 
who  refuses  apologies  when  tendered.  "Why,  sir,  from  the  nature  of  the  discussion 
we  have  had  it  seems  that  in  this  country  no  man's  character  is  worth  anything 
unless  he  has  been  a  military  man.  You  may  charge  a  man  with  being  a  '  liar ',  a 
'mere  thing ', '  a  pitiable  politician ' ;  you  may  use  all  kinds  of  opprobrious  epithets 
toward  him ;  he  is  nobody.  But  when  a  gentleman  like  the  gentleman  from  Ken 
tucky  comes  in  here  from  the  military  service  —  and  whether  he  performed  his 
duty  well  or  ill,  I  am  not  going  to  question  —  when  such  a  gentleman  comes  in 
here  and  uses  unparliamentary  language  like  that  I  have  read  from  his  remarks, 
attacking  the  character  of  other  members  of  the  House,  he  is  to  be  shielded 
by  that  immunity  which  his  service  in  the  army  throws  about  him.  Sir,  I  trust 
it  will  be  very  long  before  this  House  will  adopt  that  doctrine. 

"  Why,  sir,  the  character  and  reputation  of  a  civilian  are  as  dear  to  him  as  the 
character  and  reputation  of  a  military  man  are  to  him ;  and  when  one  is  attacked 
it  is  certainly  quite  as  much  a  provocation  for  a  return  of  the  attack  in  the  body 
where  the  attack  is  made  as  language  uttered  by  another  is  provocation  for  the 
military  gentleman  to  change  his  base  outside  of  this  Hall,  and  make  his  attack 
there. 

"Now,  sir,  I  have  occupied  the  attention  of  the  House  longer  than  I  had 
intended  when  I  sought  the  floor ;  but  I  desired  to  present,  at  least  in  an  imper 
fect  manner,  the  side  of  the  case  to  which  very  little  attention  had  been  given  dur 
ing  this  discussion.  I  wish,  also,  before  I  conclude,  to  remind  the  House  of  the 
circumstances  attending  this  assault.  The  gentleman  from  Kentucky  had  been 
thinking  over  it  for  four  days.  It  was  a  deliberate,  malicious  assault  upon  a  mem 
ber  of  the  House  for  words  spoken  on  the  floor.  It  was  not  only  deliberate  on  the 
part  of  the  gentleman  himself,  but  his  purpose  was  conveyed  to  at  least  one  other 
person,  whom  he  invited  to  be  present,  and  who  by  some  cunningly-devised  means 
managed,  without  formal  invitation,  to  have  one  other  there,  both  of  them  being 
armed.  The  second  one  testifies  that  he  did  not  arm  himself  for  the  purpose  of 
taking  a  part  in  this  difficulty;  that  he  did  not  know  the  difficulty  would  occur. 
But  by  some  means  this  man  Pennybaker,  who  was  notified  of  the  assault,  pro 
cured  the  attendance  of  these  other  innocent  men,  who  did  not  know  anything 
about  it.  It  was  strange,  but  it  is  true. 

"Now,  of  course,  these  parties  were  all  innocent,  and  this  congregating  together 
of  three  or  four  persons  to  assault  a  member  of  Congress  amounts  to  nothing.  I 
suppose,  from  the  course  this  case  has  taken,  that  the  privileges  of  this  body 
amount  to  nothing;  that  the  independence  of  the  representative  character,  the 
independence  of  the  legislative  body  of  this  nation  amount  to  nothing,  if  you  only 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETT   YEAES.  169 

have  its  privileges  infringed  upon  by  some  gentleman  who  comes  here  surrounded 
by  military  glory  such  as  is  claimed  for  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky." 

Mr.  Allison  in  finale  called  up  the  resolution  and  order  of  the 
House.  Speaker  Colfax  said : 

"  General  Rosseau :  The  House  of  Representatives  has  declared  you  guilty  of 
a  violation  of  its  rights  and  privileges  in  a  premeditated  assault  on  a  member  for 
words  spoken  in  debate.  This  condemnation  they  have  placed  upon  their  journal 
and  have  ordered  that  you  be  publicly  reprimanded  by  the  speaker. 

"  No  words  of  mine  can  add  to  the  force  of  this  order,  in  obedience  to  which  I 
now  pronounce  upon  you  its  reprimand." 

There  are  incidents  outside  of  the  official  debates,  and  the 
action  of  the  House,  to  be  noticed.  I  was  deeply  interested  in  this 
Freedman's  bill,  having  had  interviews  with  General  Grant  as  the 
head  of  the  army.  Prominent  colored  people,  also,  and  General 
Howard,  looked  to  me  as  a  champion  of  the  bill.  In  the  discus 
sion  in  committee  of  the  whole  I  was  chairman  a  portion  of  the 
time  of  the  speaker's  call,  and  listened  to  all  the  debates.  I  was 
further  pushed  to  the  verge  of  personalities  by  the  overbearing, 
pompous  manner  of  the  member  from  Kentucky,  and  the  frequent 
boast  of  his  military  record  and  the  taunting  sneer,  "  When  were 
you  in  the  war  ?  "  This  was  offensive  to  real  soldiers,  who  were 
happy  in  seeing  his  plumes  lowered  on  the  field  he  had  chosen  for 
the  false  estimate  of  his  ability.  The  remark  that  "he  would 
shoot  a  soldier  on  duty  "  General  Grant  assured  me  was  regarded  a 
disgrace  and  unsoldierlike.  The  civilian,  loyal,  and  on  duty  at 
home  and  in  Congress,  I  deemed  as  honorable,  if  less  noted,  as  the 
soldier,  and  the  code  of  ethics  and  taste  which  made  severe  lan 
guage  fit  for  a  general,  I  regarded  as  suited  to  a  civilian.  Still, 
my  peaceful  course  in  waiting  for  the  action  of  Congress  did  not 
meet  the  favor  of  belligerent  spirits.  I  had  with  the  spirit  of  a 
man,  on  my  way  down  the  avenue,  stepped  in  and  asked  for  a  pis 
tol,  but  it  did  not  suit  me.  On  entering  my  lodgings,  I  met  Sena 
tor  Howard  of  Michigan,  who  asked  what  was  the  matter  with  my 
face.  And  on  the  reply,  "Not  much,7'  said  he  must  know,  and  I 
gave  the  facts  in  a  few  words,  saying,  "  I  will  go  to  my  dinner." 
"  Dinner  !  Shoot  him  before  you  eat.  It  is  a  cowardly  conspiracy 
backed  by  Johnson  and  traitors."  Soon  he  came  to  my  side  at 
dinner,  saying,  "I  gave  you  wrong  advice,  it  is  too  late  for  vio 
lence,  you  cannot  afford  it.  They  were  drunk,  while  you  are  cool 


170  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEAES. 

and  sober."  On  going  up  to  my  room  I  found  Senator  Grimes  of 
Iowa,  Senators  Wilson  and  Sumner,  also  members  of  the  Iowa  del 
egation,  to  restrain  me  from  shooting  my  assailant,  which  would, 
they  said,  involve  regret,  and  end  in  assassination.  The  time  had 
passed  to  use  a  deadly  weapon,  except  in  self-defense.  My  Iowa 
friends  in  the  department  made  me  a  present  of  a  heavy  cane  with 
an  iron  head  from  a  bolt  in  the  historic  Monitor,  and  this  I  carried. 
By  a  resolution  of  the  House,  the  parties  in  this  affair  were  sum 
moned  before  a  committee  called  to  meet  in  a  high  by-corner  of  the 
capitol,  reached  by  winding  stairs.  I  was  the  first  to  arrive  and 
stood  alone  by  the  stair,  when  K/osseau  appeared.  Seeing  me  only, 
as,  standing  over  him  with  the  iron-headed  cane,  he  could  not 
retreat  without  exposing  himself  to  a  blow  which  would  have 
broken  his  skull.  Standing  still,  while  in  my  power,  he  turned 
pale.  I  said,  "I  have  you  in  my  power,  but  I  will  not  kill  you." 
Not  a  word  further  was  spoken,  and  I  give  him  credit  for  a  frank 
relation  of  the  circumstances  that  I  did  not  use  my  power  and 
advantage  to  take  his  life.  Great  as  the  provocation  was,  I  have 
always  been  glad  that,  though  he  made  one  attack  upon  me,  I  did 
not  imitate  him,  which  I  could  have  done  with  a  deadly  blow,  in 
safety,  when  alone. 

General  Kousseau,  leaving  Congress,  was  appointed  an  officer  in 
the  regular  army,  by  President  Johnson.  While  on  duty  in  New 
Orleans,  after  two  or  three  years'  service,  he  died.  I  hear  that  he 
has  a  family  living,  and  I  would  not  mention  rumors  or  facts  as  to 
his  career  which  might  be  an  uncharitable  reflection  on  the  unfor 
tunate  dead.  While  in  New  Orleans,  I  met  an  acquaintance  who 
was  with  the  general  in  his  sickness,  and  learned  that  when  near 
his  end,  he  said  he  regretted  the  assault,  for  while  I  wounded  his 
pride  by  severe  words,  he  wished  to  live  to  make  reparation  by  an 
apology,  for  I  had  spared  his  life. 

Fair  debate  without  personalities  is  a  practice  to  be  com 
mended,  however  great  the  provocation  to  bitter  retort.  For  many 
years  I  was  thrown  where  there  was  sharp  debate,  and  suspect 
myself  of  a  bitterness,  which  I  must  charge  to  indignation  toward 
a  cruel  pretender.  Severe  words  should  not  be  indulged  except  on 
the  greatest  provocation,  is  the  lesson  of  an  unhappy  affair.  I 
would  be  one  in  the  role  of  peacemakers,  who  are  on  the  best 
authority  blessed. 


CHAPTEE  XII. 

Lincoln' 's  War  Cabinet  —  Salmon  P.  Chase  —  Edwin  M.  Stanton — 
William  H.  Seward —  General  and  President  Grant. 

The  Emancipation  Cabinet  I  knew  well — Mr.  Chase,  Mr.  Seward, 
Mr.  Bates  of  St.  Louis,  a  quiet  gentleman  of  the  old  school; 
Montgomery  Blair,  son  of  Francis  P.  Blair,  the  eminent  admirer 
and  eulogizer  of  General  Jackson;  Caleb  B.  Smith  of  Indiana,  a 
speaker  of  ability  and  local  fame ;  and  Mr.  Stanton  the  War  Min 
ister.  Abraham  Lincoln,  of  course,  was  the  great  figure  who 
humorously  describes  himself  on  duty,  "Keeping  his  cabinet  in 
order  and  from  quarreling."  How  little  they  had  in  common  in 
native  endowments,  and  even  less  in  environment  and  birth,  yet  all 
favorable  to  the  attainment  of  world-wide  renown. 

It  was  in  1861  that  I  first  met  the  president.  Waiting,  on  his 
request,  I  took  from  the  marble  mantle  a  volume  by  Orpheus  C. 
Kerr.  It  was  a  light,  witty  burlesque,  and,  while  holding  it  in  my 
hand,  Mr.  Lincoln  said,  "  Don't  judge  your  friend  by  that  book  of 
fun  and  romance.  I  read  it  when  my  brain  is  weary,  and  I  seek 
relief  by  diversion,  which  this  promotes.  I  have  hours  of  depres 
sion,  and  I  must  be  unbent.  When  a  boy,  the  owner  of  a  bow  and 
arrow,  I  found  one  must  let  up  on  the  bow  if  the  arrow  is  to  have 
force.  Bead  Kerr  and  then  pity  me  chained  here  in  the  Mecca  of 
office-seekers.  You  flaxen  men  with  broad  faces  are  born  with 
cheer,  and  don't  know  a  cloud  from  a  star.  I  am  of  another  tem 
perament.  But,  drop  the  book,  and  if  the  country  will  get  up  as 
much  fever  in  enlistments  as  there  is  strife  for  the  offices,  the 
rebel  leaders  will  soon  have  a  collapse." 

Months  later  I  called,  and  met  his  salutation,  "How  is  Iowa; 
with  whom  did  you  leave  those  few  sheep  (a  few  thousand)  in  the 
wilderness?"  "Not  much,  Mr.  President,  of  shepherd  David's 
wilderness  —  all  prairie.  Will  you  please  tell  me,  how  did  you 
know  I  kept  sheep?"  "I  remember  men  by  association,  and  know 


172  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

you  a  tariff  man  and  sheep  owner  by  a  picture  of  one  of  your  flock, 
in  the  United  States  Agricultural  report.  It  was  his  Satanic 
majesty,  clipping  the  hog,  that  founded  the  old  proverb,  *  Great 
cry  and  little  wool ' ;  but  the  war  demand  should  make  you  sheep- 
farmers  very  happy  and  patriotic.77  I  soon  passed  to  business, 
which  was  asking  for  the  promotion  of  the  gallant  Eliott  W.  Rice 
to  the  rank  of  brigadier  in  the  army,  for  heroic  service.  "  What 
does  Stanton  say  ? 77  he  asked.  "  Nothing,  will  not  even  look  up 
the  papers.77  "Yes,  I  know  the  cases  like  yours  are  hundreds,  and 
it  disturbs  him,  even  my  hint  that  we  may  move  up  the  boys  and 
encourage  enlistments.  It  is  a  very  delicate  question.  Don7t  be 
impatient,  but  get  on  the  right  side  of  a  very  good  officer.77  On  a 
second  call,  Mr.  Lincoln  anticipating  me  said,  "  Stanton  was  fairly 
mad  on  the  suggestion  of  promotion  by  civilians  or  members  of 
Congress.77  My  answer  was,  "I  base  my  claim  on  the  recommend 
ations  of  superior  officers  in  the  field.77  "You  get  the  facts,77  said 
he,  "and  quietly  say  the  president  hopes  your  request  will  be 
granted.77  When  we  next  met  I  was  accosted,  "Have  you  not  gone 
home  yet?  Let  us  walk;  I  am  weary  and  depressed  by  many 
things  I  cannot  talk  about.77  After  a  renewal  of  my  argument  in 
behalf  of  the  fourth  district  of  Iowa,  and  pleading  the  gallantry 
and  number  of  her  soldiers,  he  said,  "I  cannot  attempt  to  make 
Stanton  over  at  this  stage.  You  will  win,  if  patient.77  With  a 
nod  of  doubt,  he  said  with  his  hand  on  the  knob  of  the  White 
House  door,  "  Have  you  a  slip  of  paper  ? 77  And  while  resting 
against  a  column  wrote : 

"  Sir:  Without  an  if  or  an  and,  let  Colonel  Eliott  W.  Rice  be  made  a  brigadier- 
general  in  the  United  States  army. 

"A.  LINCOLN. 
"ToE.  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War." 

He  took  my  hand  with  a  parting  good-by  and  said,  "  Eeport,  if 
necessary,  from  the  War  Office.77  It  is  in  sequel  elsewhere,  the 
successful  issue  in  promotion  by  Mr.  Stanton.* 

*From  Colonel  Byers'  history,  "Iowa  in  war  times."  Hon.  J.  B.  Grhmell, 
on  being  elected  to  Congress,  insisted  that  the  gallant  Col.  E.  W.  Rice,  who  had 
been  promoted  for  gallantry  at  Donelsou,  be  made  a  brigadier-general.  Mr.  Stan- 
ton  refused  to  talk  with  civilians  on  the  subject.  He  would  not  permit  interfer 
ence  with  army  appointments.  Mr.  Grinnell  still  importuned,  urged  that  Rice 
deserved  this,  that  all  the  officers  of  his  company  approved  it,  wanted  it,  and  that 
he,  Grinnell,  personally  had  oome  to  Washington  to  demand  it.  "  No  use,  sir," 


EEMINISCENCES  OF  FOETT  YEARS.  173 

At  another  visit  to  the  White  House,  in  company  with  several 
lowans,  I  called,  urging  the  appointment  of  Secretary  Chase  as 
chief  justice.  Later,  seeing  Mr.  Lincoln  alone,  he  quizzed  me 
with  questions.  "Are  you  sure  the  seat  of  a  chief  justice  will 
not  heighten  rather  than  banish  political  ambition  ?  It  ought  to 
banish  it ;  so  high  and  honorable  a  place  should  satisfy  and  engross 
any  American.  Well,  you  are  of  good  hope  on  the  outside,  but  I 
must  do  the  right  thing  in  this  critical  hour." 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  met  by  the  assassin  in  the  theatre,  and  I 
think  it  was  the  need  of  relaxation  more  than  the  attractions  of 
the  stage  that  made  him  a  witness  of  the  best  actors,  though  he 
was  an  ardent  admirer  of  Shakespeare.  I  once  said,  "Mr.  Presi 
dent,  I  see  that  you  with  some  of  the  rest  of  us  were  out  last 
night."  "Yes,  and  they  said  my  coarse  laugh  was  very  audible. 
But  what  did  you  think,  Grinnell,  was  the  best  thing  there  last 
night?  I  will  tell  you  what  convulsed  me."  Mr.  Lincoln  rose 
from  his  chair  and  stepped  out  from  behind  the  table,  struck  an 
attitude,  and  raised  his  hand  as  if  in  holy  horror,  "  Lord,  how  this 
world  is  given  to  lying."  "We  had  some  good  war  news  yester 
day,"  he  continued,  "and  I  was  glad  to  unbend  and  laugh.  The 


answered  the  secretary,  "  your  case,  sir,  is  like  thousands.  What  we  want  now  is 
victories,  not  brigadiers.  We  are  in  a  crisis.  I  refuse,  sir,  to  make  a  promise  even 
to  consider  the  wish  of  a  civilian  at  such  a  time.  I  am  sorry.  My  desk  is  loaded 
with  business;  I  must  say  good-morning."  A  second  call  ended  as  abruptly  as  the 
first.  "  No  use  in  a  civilian's  talking  to  me  on  the  subject,  sir."  "  Neither  can  I 
waive  a  civilian's  rights,"  added  Mr.  Grinnell.  "  Then  go  to  the  president,"  said 
the  secretary  sharply.  "That  would  be  an  offense;  my  regard  for  the  Secretary 
of  War  would  make  that  step  a  last  resort."  "  Get  your  request  granted  and  I 
will  resign,"  said  Stanton  angrily.  One  more  trial,  and  Mr.  Grinnell  did  see  the 
president.  After  returning  from  a  walk  and  hearing  the  full  details  as  to  Rice's 
strong  endorsements,  Lincoln  asked  for  a  bit  of  paper,  leaned  against  one  of  the 
pillars  of  the  White  House,  and  wrote,  "Without  an  if  or  an  and,  let  E.  W.  Rice 
of  Iowa  be  made  a  brigadier-general.  A.  Lincoln."  The  bit  of  paper  was  handed 
to  the  secretary.  "I  will  resign,"  he  said,  crushing  the  paper  and  tossing  it  into 
the  waste  basket.  Mr.  Grinnell  was  about  to  go.  "Wait,"  said  the  secretary, 
smiling  for  the  first  time  in  a  month;  "wait,  Mr.  Grinnell;  come  over  and  take 
,dinner  with  me."  Mr.  Grinnell  was  compelled  by  engagements  to  leave  the  city 
at  once,  but  shortly  he  was  tendered  the  colonelcy  of  a  regiment.  Eliott  W.  Rice 
was  made  a  brigadier ;  was  later  made  brevet  major-general  and  continued  what 
he  had  always  been,  a  brave  and  competent  officer,  whose  deeds  added  luster  to  the 
state.  His  commission,  by  mistake,  was  made  out  in  the  name  of  his  brother, 
Samuel  A.  Rice ;  but,  as  the  latter  was  also  being  urged  for  promotion  at  another 
part  of  the  army,  no  harm  was  done.  The  brothers  both  got  the  stars  they  had 
earned,  and  both  were  popular  officers,  the  elder  brother  giving  his  life  for  the 
cause. 


174  REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

acting- was  good,  and  true  to  the  case,  according  to  my  experiences, 
for  each  fellow  tells  his  own  story  and  smirches  his  rival." 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  especially  considerate  of  democrats,  as  I 
learned  while  calling  with  a  complaint.  There  was  in  the  Interior 
Department  a  constituent  of  mine,  who  was  frequently  insulted  by 
a  department  clerk,  a  real  rebel,  and  the  more  bold  because  he  had 
a  brother,  a  member  of  Congress,  whom  the  Secretary  would  be 
slow  to  offend.  As  I  opened  my  grievance,  Mr.  Lincoln  laid  his 
hand  on  my  shoulder  and  said,  "Don't  ask  me  to  strike  so  low;  I 
have  to  do  with  those  whom  I  despise,  for  we  are  at  war.  Demo 
cratic  aid  we  must  have  if  possible,  and  I  conciliate  to  avoid  all 
friction.  There  is  General  McClernand,  from  my  state,  whom  they 
say  I  use  better  than  a  radical,  and  the  devotees  of  the  dead  Doug 
lass  I  honor  and  praise  often,  as  I  would  have  promoted  their  chief 
had  he  lived.  There  is  too  much'  of  mixing  war  and  party  in  the 
field,  when  real  fighting  out  of  the  trenches  would  better  suit  the 
case."  I  knew  he  was  alluding  to  McClellan's  imprudent  advisory 
letter. 

General  Fremont's  proclamation  was,  as  I  had  good  occasion  to 
know,  a  severe  trial  to  Mr.  Lincoln.  On  the  opening  of  a  budget 
of  my  grievances,  he  said,  "Don't  mention  them.  I  meet  insults, 
standing  between  two  fires,  and  the  constant  blazes  of  anger. 
Why,  not  an  hour  ago,  a  woman,  a  lady  of  high  blood,  came  here, 
opening  her  case  with  mild  expostulation,  but  left  in  anger  flaunt 
ing  her  handkerchief  before  my  face,  and  saying,  e  Sir,  the  general 
will  try  titles  with  you.  He  is  a  man  and  I  am  his  wife.'  I  will 
tell  you  before  you  guess.  It  was  Jessie,  the  daughter  of  old  Bul 
lion,  and  how  her  eye  flashed !  Young  man,  forget  your  annoy 
ances !  They  are  only  as  flea-bites  to  mine.  They  are  serious 
comedy,  while  I  am  in  the  focus  of  tragedy  and  fire.  You  folks 
up  on  the  hill  must  aid  me  in  placating  those  congenital  demo 
crats,  whom  we  want  to  keep  fighting  for  us  if  they  will.  We 
must  coyly  give  rope  if  we  have  to  make  a  short  turn  later.  I 
remember,  of  the  New  York  e  Barn-burners ',  it  was  charged  that 
to  get  clear  of  the  rats  they  burned  the  barn.  We  must  put  up 
with  vermin  intrusion,  to  save  the  barn.  By  the  way,  your  Sena 
tor  Grimes,  I  met  smiling.  The  navy  is  sending  up  such  good 
news  I  was  glad  to  see  his  cheer.  The  croakers  are  getting  hoarse, 
the  spies  scarce,  and  the  maligners  well-known." 

These  are  a  few  of  the  treasured  words  by  one  whose  grand 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   TEARS.  175 

position  in  history  requires  no  disparagement  of  liis  cotemporaries 
and  former  political  rivals,  equal  in  service  and  ability  if  in  a 
lower  scale  of  action.  The  historians  of  the  martyr  have  placed 
their  god  on  a  solitary  pedestal,  and  there  should  be  no  inference 
drawn  from  the  frailties  of  a  Seward,  Chase  and  Stanton,  that  they 
had  not  grand  parts  in  the  drama  of  war  and  reconstruction.  I 
think  them  safe,  each  on  his  own  historic  pedestal,  and  not  to  be 
clouded  by  the  shadow  of  their  chief.  Our  grief  on  his  assassina 
tion  was  deep  beyond  expression.  For  the  first  time  in  my  life,  on 
a  bright  Sabbath  morning,  I  fainted  on  the  porch  of  our  pastor, 
Dr.  Cochrane,  on  breaking  the  news  of  the  assassination,  and  in  an 
attempted  public  eulogy,  my  personal  sorrow  and  gloom  forbade 
audible  and  coherent  expression. 


SALMON    P.    CHASE, 

the  minister  of  finance,  attained  a  fame  kindred  to  that  of  the  pres 
ident.  I  had  every  occasion  to  like  him  personally.  He  attended 
regularly  the  Congregational  Church  in  Washington,  so  long  as  I 
stood  in  the  pulpit.  He  would  bring  his  friends,  and  while  by 
profession  an  Episcopalian  and  a  nephew  of  Bishop  Chase,  lent  his 
sympathies  to  the  bold  progressives  of  our  church.  On  my  leaving 
Washington  he  sent  his  regrets,  with  the  hope  that  there  would  be 
a  free  and  untrammeled  church  at  the  capital  soon,  and  he  cared 
little  for  the  name.  On  my  writing  the  State  Eepublican  Address 
for  Iowa,  he  sent  me  compliments  while  Governor  of  Ohio,  which 
served  to  mitigate  regrets  that  I  left  Washington  under  a  cloud  of 
suspicion  because  not  loyal  to  slavery.  He  was  a  bold  man  as  he 
stood  undaunted  in  the  Senate,  a  great  lawyer  as  shown  in  his  plea 
in  the  Van  Zandt  slave  case.  Fluent  as  a  speaker  he  was  not,  nor 
did  he  interest  the  galleries  as  did  Hale  and  Douglass.  It  was  his 
directness  and  measured  language  which  carried  power,  and  gave 
confidence  to  his  friends  that  he  had  an  eminent  future.  Among 
the  guardians  of  liberty  in  the  Senate  and  at  the  social  gatherings, 
he  was  a  model  gentleman,  tall,  rotund,  comely,  with  a  benign 
countenance  and  a  broad  brow.  There  was  dignity  in  his  deport 
ment,  and  an  air  of  gravity  which  forbade  rudeness  in  his  pres 
ence,  but  not  imposing  undue  restraint.  If  there  was  ever  a  better 
equipment  by  temperament  and  natural  endowment  for  a  finance 


176  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

minister,  or  a  chief  justice  of  a  great  court,  that  character  I  have 
not  seen  drawn. 

I  know  he  was  ambitious,  for  he  asked  me,  as  I  complimented 
the  national  banking  law,  if  I  thought  it  would  give  him  political 
favor  in  Iowa.  "  You  will  see  that  your  cattle  and  your  lands  are 
to  bring  more  money.  You  will  find,  if  we  can  only  have  victories 
in  the  field,  that  in  finance  our  policy  and  success  will  bring  the 
enforced  admiration  of  the  world."  When  sitting  in  the  secreta 
ry's  office,  he  said,  " Don't  be  afraid  to  talk  frankly."  Thereupon  I 
^mentioned  Dr.  Bailey's  family  as  that  of  his  friend,  whom  I  hoped 
he  would  remember.  « Certainly,"  said  he,  "and  that  son  I  will 
take  care  of  to-day." 

Months  later,  under  a  bureau  conspiracy  to  exalt  favorites,  and 
degrade  men  who  carry  a  free  lance,  one  of  the  clerks,  a  friend  of 
mine,  was  about  to  receive  a  stab ;  and,  on  my  calling  to  protest 
that  that  was  one  of  the  things  not  safe  to  be  done,  the  secretary 
said,  "I  will  take  your  advice,  without  knowing  the  details,  for 
you  are  my  friend."  Afterward  he  thanked  me  for  the  advice, 
which  was  a  prevention  of  a  wrong.  I  knew  more  of  him  through 
Mr.  Thaddeus  Stevens,  with  whom  he  was  often  in  consultation. 
They  were  wholly  unlike,  but  of  radical  and  advanced  views. 
They  compared  notes  as  students  of  finance,  and  parted  with  the 
hope  that  McClellan  would  move,  or  Lincoln  get  mad.  With  arms 
folded,  lips  compressed,  and  firmly  standing,  I  saw  the  man  wor 
thy  of  the  eulogies  bestowed  upon  Necker  the  Frenchman,  and  our 
idolized  Hamilton;  and  during  these  years,  whenever  holding  a 
bank-bill,  with  his  benevolent  face  and  broad  brow  engraved 
thereon,  I  have  been  moved  to  revere  one  who  made  enlistments 
easy,  comforts  for  the  soldiers  possible,  with  victories  for  our  arms. 
I  am  deaf  to  the  insinuation  that  he  was  a  marplot,  if  a  severe 
critic  of  his  chief.  His  radicalism  cannot  be  judged  fully,  for  his 
friends  had  no  power  to  test  it  amidst  civic  strifes  and  military 
jealousies. 

But,  it  is  asked,  did  he  not  in  later  years  disavow  his  earlier 
professions  ?  No.  He  was  true  to  the  f reedmen ;  he  was  a  friend 
of  all  the  great  constitutional  amendments,  silent  when  the  shafts 
from  political  rivals  and  detractors  were  hurled,  and  in  the  dis 
charge  of  his  duties  as  chief  justice  without  bias,  fear  or  weak 
ness.  "Did  you  like  his  presiding  at  the  Johnson  impeachment 
trial  ?  "  I  am  asked.  I  regretted  that  he  was  against  the  impeach- 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  177 

merit  policy,  and  that  he  did  not  conceal  his  animus.  It  is  possi 
ble,  as  his  enemies  assert,  that  he  believed  the  issue  would  call 
him  into  the  presidential  chair  by  the  aid  of  democrats.  It  could 
not.  The  leaders  knew  his  early  history,  and  there  was  the  record 
of  a  pure  life  without  a  scandal,  and  the  poise  of  a  great  jurist. 
And  so  I  leave  my  friend  with  the  declaration  of  the  late  Justice 
Miller,  "Democratic  politics  and  presidential  slate-makers  had  no 
use  for  him,  for  in  my  opinion  he  was  incorruptible,  and  the  great 
est  man  that  ever  sat  on  the  Supreme  Bench."  This  was  from  a 
colleague  with  a  close  intimacy  of  twenty  years  —  a  compliment 
for  one  who  found  the  highest  appreciation  where  best  known. 

EDWIN    M.    ST ANTON. 

It  was  a  popular  belief  in  the  war  epoch  that  to  get  a  hearing 
with  Stanton  you  must  become  a  sycophant  or  win  in  a  fight.  His 
reputation  for  dispatch  in  business  was  no  less  the  admiration  of 
the  war  party  than  was  his  radicalism  an  offense  to  the  bourbons, 
while  some  like  Attorney-General  Black,  Mr.  Cox  and  others, 
insinuated  that  he  was  disloyal  in  speech  and  a  rebel  at  heart. 
On  the  contrary  Senator  Henry  Wilson  and  his  class  were  happy 
over  his  late  loyal  conversion,  and  pointed  to  acts  that  were  giv 
ing  full  proof  of  the  wisdom  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  selection. 

Mr.  Stanton,  standing  at  his  desk,  short,  broad,  with  smooth 
brow  and  long,  dark  beard  nervously  stroked,  was  a  study.  Two 
and  sometimes  three  clerks  were  required,  taking  down  directions 
and  orders  for  business  as  the  visitors  came  up  in  single  file. 
Compliments  and  smiles  were  waived,  while  occasionally  there 
would  be  an  invitation  to  tarry  in  the  next  room  after  congressmen 
had  found  a  hearing.  The  sequel  to  my  conflict  in  a  struggle  in 
behalf  of  Colonel  Bice's  promotion  was  a  most  warm  welcome,  and 
I  cannot  deny  the  justice  of  others'  experience,  that  he  was  gall  to 
enemies,  honey  to  friends.  A  bill  had  just  passed  which  opened 
the  way  for  a  recast  of  officers  and  additional  appointments  in  reg 
ular  service  by  Mr.  Stanton.  At  an  early  day  I  was  in  the  next 
room,  but  with  the  door  ajar  could  hear  the  members,  including 
my  colleagues,  asking  for  appointments.  The  reply  would  be 
"No",  or  an  evasion.  After  the  crowd  had  passed,  I  appeared 
and  said  I  had  overheard  and  assumed  it  was  no  time  to  ask  favors 
for  my  constituents.  His  answer  was,  "Did  I  ever  say  anything 


178  REMINISCENCES  OF  FOETY  YEARS. 

but  yes,  to  you,  save  once  ?  What  do  you  want  ?  Colonel,  take 
down  Mr.  Grinnell's  requests."  They  were  Captain  C.  V.  Gardner, 
to  be  captain  in  the  regular  army ;  George  B.  Hogan,  paymaster ; 
the  grandson  of  Mr.  Hawley  of  Ottumwa,  cadet  at  large.'7  "Any 
thing  more  ?  "  said  Mr.  Stanton;  "your  requests  shall  be  granted"; 
and  the  appointments  were  made.  This  will  suffice  in  proof  that 
time  has  found  an  estimate  of  one  neither  boor  nor  beast,  bearing 
more  than  a  load  for  Hercules.  Pleasantly  would  he  talk  of 
Quaker  birth,  and  studying  law  with  Senator  Tappan  of  Ohio,  and 
being  as  much  of  an  abolitionist  when  a  law-student  as  the  Tap- 
pans  of  New  York.  Good  news  he  was  swift  to  impart,  up  to  the 
line  of  official  privacy,  to  his  friends.  He  was  not  tardy  in  extol 
ling  favorites.  Joseph  Holt,  who  exposed  the  "Knights  of  the 
Golden  Circle",  had  a  good  word  from  the  war  secretary.  Matt 
Carpenter,  senator  from  Wisconsin,  was  his  favorite  in  the  legal 
profession  for  a  specific  case,  for,  said  he,  "  He  has  dash,  persist 
ency  and  an  heroic  spirit,  which  captivates  and  wins  like  an  astute 
genius."  Of  Henry  Ward  Beecher  he  was  very  fond,  saying, 
"  You  see  your  friend  and  mine  goes  to  Charleston  when  the  old 
flag  goes  up  on  Sumpter  again.  I  know  you  will  like  his  going, 
for  the  public  had  made  the  choice  without  the  formality  of  vot 
ing.  The  first  preacher  of  his  time,  the  orator  who  subdued  the 
British  Lion,  is  the  man  to  speak — one  who  honors  the  flag  and 
honors  his  race." 

Such  in  dim  outline  was  the  iron  man  of  the  cabinet  and  the 
organizer  of  victories.  That  he  was  quick  in  temper,  desperate  in 
his  hates,  there  is  abundant  proof.  He  was  a  keen  detecter  of 
shams  and  had  the  open  heart  of  a  lover  in  treatment  of  those  true 
to  their  convictions  and  heroic  and  loyal  in  the  field.  Success 
became  an  inflaming  passion,  and  timidity  his  aversion.  "  I  have 
never  despaired,"  said  he,  "in  the  dark  hours,  nor  do  I  allow 
myself  to  read  the  stabs  of  knaves  and  cowards,  whom  I  have 
been  compelled  to  place  under  the  ban  of  condemnation.  I  have 
my  days  of  depression  and  don't  know  how  long  I  can  endure  it 
here."  It  is  true  his  days  after  retirement  were  few,  but  he  was 
not,  as  his  enemies  aver,  a  suicide.  Doubtful  acts  are  to  be  meas 
ured  by  a  call  for  desperate  remedies.  So  will  the  honor  of 
the  great  secretary  be  unchallenged  by  the  biographer  of  the 
future. 


REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY   YEARS.  179 

WILLIAM    H.    SEWARD,    GOVERNOR    OF    NEW    YORK    IN    1837. 

Senator  William  H.  Seward  was  from  my  boyhood  romantically 
admired ;  he  was  one  of  the  idols  of  young  men.  He  had  been  a 
leader,  and  while  temporarily  out  of  the  public  gaze  was  earning 
fame  as  an  able  patent  lawyer,  and  otherwise,  as  in  the  great  crim 
inal  railway  conspiracy  by  farmers  in  Michigan. 

In  1846,  the  case  of  the  colored  man  Freeman,  who  was  the 
murderer  of  several  persons  in  Auburn,  New  York,  brought  out 
the  astonishing  resources  of  Mr.  Seward,  not  less  than  bravery  in 
defense  of  one  whom  all  execrated,  but  whose  brain  was  found,  on 
post-mortem  examination,  to  have  suffered  from  an  old  injury. 
The  defense  set  up  was  the  famous  one  of  "moral  insanity".  In 
company  with  Mr.  Wilder,  a  law  student,  I  was  a  fortunate  list 
ener  to  his  free  office  talks  in  the  evening,  when  relaxing  after 
court  hours.  "Prince  John"  Van  Buren  was  the  attorney-general 
in  prosecution,  in  regard  to  whom  Mr.  Seward  said,  he  would  art 
fully  draw  out  more  law  and  opinions  by  doubts,  than  his  habits 
and  the  industry  of  a  genius  could  otherwise  gain.  All  Mr. 
Seward's  arguments  and  speeches  bore  the  marks  of  close  study 
and  a  fine  mind  in  grasp  of  great  themes. 

Natural  gifts,  culture,  forecast  as  a  statesman,  persistence,  prob 
ity,  with  an  honorable  ambition,  made  him  senator,  and  like  the 
morning  star  of  hope  in  the  presidential  race  of  1860.  The  most 
unprepossessing  figure  in  the  chamber — thin,  pale,  eye-sunken,  a 
retreating  forehead  hidden  by  a  shock  of  dishevelled  hair,  voice 
high-keyed  and  almost  repulsive,  said  to  have  been  impaired  by  the 
use  of  snuff — this  was  the  first  impression  of  an  actor,  grand  in 
rhetoric,  learned,  philosophic,  undaunted,  not  only  the  oracle  of  a 
great  state,  but  the  prophetic  voice  of  a  nation.  He  takes  the 
floor,  clenching  the  chair  with  one  hand — the  other  seldom 
raised — with  the  calmness  of  Plato  and  the  spirit  of  Girondist, 
for  a  strictly  impersonal  speech  enlivened  neither  by  incident  nor 
story.  The  page  boys  are  hushed  and  fire-eaters  pay  the  tribute  of 
attention  to  one  in  whose  manner  there  is  the  composure  of  a  vic 
tor  and  philosopher,  the  bold  challenge  of  a  denial. 

Webster  in  cool  derision  styles  the  slavery  agitation  only  a 
"rub-a-dub".  Seward  announces  "an  irrepressible  conflict" — the 
talismanic  truth  of  a  great  epoch.  Union  saviors  ask  his  adher 
ence  to  the  constitution  and  an  assent  that,  "  What  the  law  makes 


180  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

property  is  property."  He  can  answer,  "The  law  before  which  I 
bow  is  an  emanation  from  the  bosom  of  God." 

The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  claims  his  adherence.  When  gov 
ernor,  he  scouted  the  perjury  of  Virginians  and  the  alleged  comity 
due  to  slave  claimants  on  free  soil.  Now  must  he  become  the 
agent  of  oppression  ?  No  —  "I  defy  the  mandate,  and  accept  the 
penalties  of  treason."  Thus  in  1850  he  struck  the  highest  note  in 
peaceful  rebellion,  and  made  the  North  unsafe  ground  for  hunting 
escaped  slaves.  "There  is  a  higher  law  than  the  Constitution," 
was  his  plea.  In  vain  he  urged  the  impolicy  of  a  statute  sure  to 
incur  the  odium  of  the  world. 

Why  not  president?  Mr.  Seward  led  all  candidates  at  Chi 
cago  in  the  support  of  the  press  and  leading  partisan,  but  there 
were  wings  to  the  party;  all  conservatives  on  the  border  had  a 
vote.  Horace  Greeley,  since  the  formal  dissolution  of  the  firm  of 
Seward,  Weed,  Greeley  &  Co.,  had  favored  a  Western  man  without 
political  scars,  and  Mr.  Weed  was  the  assumed  advocate  of  Mr. 
Seward's  nomination,  but  had  the  voice  of  Jacob  with  the  hand  of 
Esau.  I  give  a  fact,  whatever  the  conclusion.  I  was  a  delegate  to 
Chicago,  fully  advised  of  the  part  New  York  was  to  play  with  her 
seventy  votes  and  dramatic  announcement  of  the  train  of  cars  to 
be  loaded  with  all  the  devices  and  displays  of  art,  and  a  sumpt 
uous  outfit,  where  Moses  H.  Grinnell  and  Governor  E.  D.  Morgan 
were  jointly  commissariat  and  captain. 

Business  calling  me  to  New  York,  I  was  quite  ready  to  be  one 
of  the  party  on  the  westward  trip.  When  going  East  I  called  at 
Auburn  and,  as  Mr.  Seward  was  just  leaving  for  New  York,  I 
became  his  company.  To  my  inquiry  as  to  the  situation  the 
answer  was,  "The  skies  seem  clear  —  Mr.  Thurlow  Weed  I  am  to 
meet  at  Albany,  and  he  will  talk  with  you  freely."  Mr.  Weed  I 
quietly  interviewed  to  further  strengthen  my  faith  in  Mr.  Seward. 
My  ardor  was  soon  cooled  —  the  so-called  slate-maker,  a  very  War 
wick  in  our  politics,  was  courteous,  and  seemed  to  be  weighed 
down  in  spirit.  "  I  much  dislike  to  have  Mr.  Seward,  the  great 
man  of  the  nation  that  he  is,  lean  on  me.  Greeley  is  on  a  rampage, 
and  an  availability  is  the  cry  of  the  West.  We  must  have  the 
next  president  to  save  the  country  —  our  party  took  Taylor  for 
victory,  and  the  democrats  won  with  Pierce,  for  there  was  nothing 
known  about  him.  Now  this  is  not  for  the  public  or  even  for 
your  own  delegation ;  it  is  a  grave  question  whether  the  greatest 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  181 

and  most  conspicuous  man  of  the  nation  is  the  best  candidate  to 
win.  The  Journal  knows  but  one  candidate,  but  serious  confiden 
tial  advice  is  another  thing."*  I  always  pitied  Mr.  Weed  in  his 
personal  conflict  —  devotions  vs.  politicians. 

I  returned  from  New  York  to  my  home  alone  rather  than  in 
the  crowd  as  a  guest  of  the  Seward  company,  involving  an  allegi 
ance  which  I  could  not  avow  by  my  vote.  Was  Mr.  Seward  less 
in  the  esteem  of  his  country,  wounded  in  the  house  of  his  friends, 
afterward  secretary  of  state  and  the  optimistic  yet  great  diplomat 
of  the  war  era  ?  Not  to  me.  I  saw  him  in  1850,  calling  on  Mr. 
Henry  C.  Bowen,  the  merchant  that  advertised  that  "he  had  goods 
for  sale,  and  not  principles ".  "  I  further  recall  that  he  said  the 
firm  whom  I  honor  had  made  a  speech  more  courageous  and  wider- 
spread  than  that  made  by  any  senator.  If  devotion  is  the  meas 
ure  of  the  virtue  of  an  idol,  then  the  griefs  for  Mr.  Seward  were 
the  sublimest  of  human  tributes.  I  met  Mr.  Moses  H.  Grinnell  at 
the  Tremont  House,  with  his  face  covered,  sighing  audibly,  "We 
are  beaten,"  and  his  company  were  like  him,  only  able  to  utter, 
"  The  greatest  of  Americans  has  gone  down  before  treachery." 
Five  years  passed,  the  witness  of  service  as  secretary  of  state  in 
the  highest  position  of  honor.  The  maimed  veteran,  with  face 
mutilated  by  the  blows  of  a  coward  on  the  fatal  night  of  the  assas 
sination  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  I  recall,  and  the  offer  of  the  Virginia  rebel 
of  fifty  thousand  dollars  for  his  head.  He  makes  a  voyage  of  the 
world,  to  gain  the  homage  of  nations,  and  honors  which  politicians 
had  denied  at  home,  and  ended  a  life  of  probity,  with  the  career  of 
a  statesman  having  the  vision  of  a  seer  and  the  soul  of  a  patriot, 
in  the  rural  seclusion  of  his  home  in  Auburn,  New  York,  in  1872, 
enjoying  the  loving  ministries  of  his  family  and  awakening  a 
nation's  grief. 

GENERAL    GRANT. 

The  great  soldier  and  president  has  found  so  many  eulogists 
that  I  condense  my  acquaintance  in  an  extract  from  a  newspaper 


*  It  is  said  that  Mr.  Seward  came  to  doubt  the  loyalty  of  his  friend.  They 
were  riding  in  Central  Park,  New  York,  in  presence  of  the  statue  of  Lincoln. 
Mr.  Seward  said,  "Weed,  if  you  had  been  true  to  me,  I  should  have  been  on  the 
pedestal."  "  Would  you  prefer  to  be  alive  or  dead,  with  your  head  in  bronze  up 
there?  "  was  Weed's  answer. 


182  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

interview,  and  my  appreciation  of  the  patriot  in  passages  from  a 
eulogy  before  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  at  his  death : 

The  following  interesting  reminiscences  were  brought  out  in  an  interview  with 
Hon.  J.  B.  Grinnell,  who  knew  Gen.  Grant  personally.  In  reply  to  a  question,  he 
said: 

"  Hon.  E.  B.  Washburn,  M.  C.  from  Galena,  had  more  to  do  with  his  gaining 
position  for  military  and  civil  power  than  any  person  living,  and  on  resigning  a 
cabinet  position  as  Secretary  of  State  had  a  distinguished  career  as  minister  to  Paris 
in  the  time  of  revolution  and  war ;  yet  for  some  reason  not  known  to  the  public, 
Grant,  the  protege,  and  Washburn,  a  political  Warwick,  were  not  in  the  last  ten 
years  in  social  and  loving  accord ;  but  of  the  occasions  for  this  it  is  no  time  to  talk." 

.Under  what  circumstances  did  you  see  General  Grant  ? 

"  It  will  involve  a  little  personality,  and  my  neighbors  and  good  fortune  gave 
me  opportunities,  and  I  will  answer :  I  first  met  the  general  with  a  request  that  he 
should  give  James  F.  "Wilson,  now  our  senator,  a  place  in  his  cabinet.  He  said  I 

could  talk  with  Mr. ,  but  there  was  no  need  of  any  state  or  political  expression. 

The  second  meeting  was  in  the  "White  House,  after  his  inauguration,  with  this 
message  to  him  as  he  met  me  and  we  looked  out  of  the  window,  '  I  know  Wilson 
has  declined  to  go  into  the  cabinet  on  the  ground  of  poverty,  but  I  have  engaged 
that  house '  (to  which  I  pointed) '  on  the  square,  as  a  friend  and  citizen  of  Iowa,  and 
hope  it  will  aid  in  meeting  his  objection,  if  not  too  late.'  The  reply  was,  '  1  am 
very  sorry  you  were  not  here  early  this  morning.  I  set  my  heart  on  having  your 
friend  Wilson  near  me,  but  he  declined  three  positions,  and  the  secretary  has  just 
left  for  the  Senate  waiting  for  the  names  of  cabinet  sent  for  confirmation.  Too 
late!  too  late!  I  regret  to  say.' 

"Until  then  I  did  not  know  that  more  than  one  place  had  been  tendered,  nor 
was  I  aware  of  all  the  diplomatic  talk  incident  to  the  occasion. 

"The  third  occasion  was  when  the  president  was  signing  commissions,  and  I 
was  about  to  leave  for  Iowa.  He  said, '  You  have  not  been  in  to  see  me  as  I  asked 
you.'  '  No,'  I  replied,  'the  last  thing  you  want  is  more  company,  and  by  the  press 
you  can't  please  half  who  do  come.'  'That  is  true,  and  I  shall  be  called  a  dull, 
slow  politician.  Iowa  complains,  I  presume,  and  I  want  to  know  about  some 
things.' 

"At  this  point  an  artist  was  announced,  who  was  touching  a  portrait,  and  was 
ready  for  a  sitting.  '  Come  along,'  said  the  general.  '  We  can  talk  while  I  am  the 
victim.  It  is  one  of  the  penalties  for  notoriety  that  I  would  swop  off  without  a 
word.'  'Talk  on,'  said  the  artist,  'the  more  vivacity  the  better,'  and  Grant  was 
the  '  silent  man '  no  longer. 

'"Grinnell,  do  you  know  what  you  had  to  do  in  bringing  my  troubles  on? 
Washburn  said,  the  other  night,  as  we  talked  over  political  events,  that  you  were 
the  first  man  in  the  halls  of  Congress  that  mentioned  me  as  a  possible  candidate  for 
president,  but  it  was  no  real  kindness.'  I  could  only  answer  that,  'When  Wash- 
burn  so  often  shouted  General  Grant,  with  a  very  emphatic  broad,  long  a,  that  I 
was  for  the  man  who  came  out  ahead,  and  did  not  care  for  his  politics,  and  being 
badgered  by  democrats  to  name  him,  said  amidst  some  applause,  that  it  was  this 
hour  Grant,  and  to  speak  frankly,  I  was  afraid  you  would  be  captured  by  the  demo 
crats;  so  very  many  I  could  name.'  (The  colloquy  is  in  the  Congressional  Globe, 
and  after  near  20  years,  I  forget  the  details).  'I  have,'  said  the  general,  'heard 
that  before,  as  to  the  fear  of  a  democrat,  if  I  had  any  politics,  but  the  scare  is  all 
over.'  Then  he  launched  off  on  horses  and  Indians,  saying,  '  Every  reservation 
was  deemed  a  paradise  and  coveted  by  white  men,  but  they  were  as  a  rule  over- 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  183 

rated ;  not  half  as  good  soil  as  Illinois  or  Iowa.  You  are  leaving  Congress,  what 
do  you  expect  from  the  administration?'  'Nothing,'!  answered.  'For  near  ten 
years  I  have  been  in  state  and  national  service,  and  have  a  family  and  cares  at 
home,  and  you  will  not  have  places  for  all  who  want  them.'  'Don't  you  know 
that  the  senators  have  you  in  mind,  and  have  asked  me  to  wait,'  etc.,  etc.  '  It  is 
news  to  me,  and  on  my  account  there  need  be  no  delay.  If  I  can  get  favors  for 
friends,  let  me  be  a  cipher.' 

"  The  rest  I  will  not  mention,  and  would  not  this  had  it  not  been  said,  when 
for  the  next  term  I  was  for  Greeley,  that  I  was  offended,  it  not  being  true,  as  Sena 
tor  Harlan  and  many  others  know. 

"  The  fourth  meeting  was  at  Des  Moines,  at  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee  meet 
ing,  I  think  in  1874.  There  was  a  grand  greeting  in  the  parlors  of  the  Savery 
House,  but  I  was  not  in  the  house,  remembering  the  active  part  in  the  Greeley 
campaign,  and  that  a  Chicago  paper  had  made  me  say  harsh  things  of  the  general, 
never  spoken,  and  that  he  asked  an  Iowa  man  what  was  the  matter  with  me  when 
he  knew  no  cause  for  my  course,  to  gain  this  reply:  '  Greeley  had  long  been  a  par 
ticular  friend.'  Still  I  am  ashamed,  not  of  my  company,  politically,  at  that  time, 
nor  of  my  words,  but  that  I  distrusted  and  feared  coldness  from  one  who  met  me 
half  way  across  the  room  with  a  cordiality  that  was  marked  by  the  company,  and  I 
confess  was  an  embarrassment,  added  to  which  was  a  compliment  later  to  my  din 
ner  speech  on  The  Navy.  Pardon  this,  but  it  was  an  incident  which  stamped  the 
great  hero  as  one  of  the  most  generous  of  mortals,  and  brings  him  near  to  my  heart 
in  grateful  emotion. 

"I  cannot  help  the  conviction,  that  he  would  have  been  a  grander  figure  in 
history  if  president  once,  rather  than  a  second  or  third  term  candidate.  That  I 
think  was  his  private  opinion,  and  of  non-partisans  the  world  over.  Still  his  life 
stands  for  courage,  simplicity  and  patriotic  devotion.  No  American  had  such 
favor  by  circumstances  in  military  and  civil  life,  and  with  one  acclaim  he  will  find 
honor  with  Washington,  for  he  was  not  venial,  nor  coarse  in  speech.  In  later 
years  he  abjured  profanity  as  vulgar,  strong  drink  as  corrupting,  and  held  implicit 
faith  in  the  value  of  religion  as  divine,  and  our  debt  of  gratitude  to  a  common 
Saviour  he  acknowledged." 


MEMORIAL    ADDRESS. 

Towers  are  measured  by  their  shadows,  and  the  resounding  crash  tells  of  the 
fall  of  the  majestic  oak.  Did  ever  the  raven  wing  of  mourning  cast  so  dark  and 
broad  a  shadow,  or  the  fall  of  a  mortal  send  so  deep  a  sigh  around  the  world,  as  the 
demise  of  Grant,  the  nation's  idol  ? 

Soldiers  of  the  Grand  Army!  You  have  peculiar  pride  in  a  comrade,  and  none 
shall  chide  you  for  tears  and  a  kinship  in  idolatry  to  the  worship  of  a  God.  Alex 
ander,  the  Grecian  warrior,  moulded  but  six  hundred  thousand  men  less  than  the 
army  your  great  captain  vanquished.  The  Roman  Caesar  clouded  his  fame  by  the 
destruction  of  a  million  of  men  in  conquest ;  Grant  commanded  a  million  for  union? 
with  the  genius  of  a  soldier  and  the  heart  of  a  peacemaker.  Greatest  of  the 
marked  figures  in  military  service  were  either  slain  for  their  ambition,  a  prey  of 
corrupting  vices,  or  escaped  dying  like  a  hermit,  or  banished  to  solitudes  where 
only  moaning  winds  and  dashing  waves  voiced  in  sad  refrain  the  shouts  of  con 
quest,  while  it  is  left  for  you  to  admire  and  mourn  one  whose  later  life  was  a  climax 
in  the  silence  he  won  from  foes ;  a  world's  applause,  and  the  brave  endurance  of 
disease,  and  the  calmer,  bold  meeting  of  the  King  of  Terrors,  from  the  mountain 
height  where  the  weary  spirit  ascended  to  its  home  in  the  bosom  of  God. 


184  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    TEARS. 


A    MISJUDGED    HERO. 

I  have  pleasure  in  the  recollection  of  voting  in  Congress  the  gold  medal,  and 
to  create  the  rank  of  lieutenant-general,  only  held  hy  Washington,  for  Grant;  yet 
language  fails  me  in  fit  mention  of  the  envious,  cool  maligners  of  his  fame,  those 
carpet  knights  and  military  shams  of  doubtful  loyalty,  feigning  the  scream  and 
flight  of  eagles,  while  noisy,  hungry  and  of  evil  omen.  "We  were  regaled  with 
slanders  specific  and  distinct  as  the  odors  of  the  famed  city  of  Cologne,  while  com 
rades  were  silent,  and  the  great  soldier-president  was  too  husy  and  too  great  for  an 
abasement  in  denial.  I,  with  thousands  of  his  party,  would  not,  did  not,  question 
his  generalship,  yet  deemed  his  administration  personal  rather  than  broad  —  his 
associations  more  repulsive  than  inspiring.  We  were  ignorant  of  the  man.  The 
reports  of  his  coarse  texture  as  a  mortal,  profane  speech  and  intemperate  habits, 
had  made  the  circuit  of  the  world,  with  all  the  gross,  morbid  begettings  of  false 
hood.  I  bow  my  head  in  confession  of  ignorance,  and  of  an  honest  but  unfair 
judgment  of  his  personal  worth,  gladly  to  join  in  the  praises  of  clouds  of  witnesses, 
to  aver  he  adorned  those  virtues  in  which  he  was  held  to  be  wanting,  and  emerged 
from  the  passing  cloud  to  shine  brighter,  as  do  the  lights  of  heaven  for  temporary 
obscuration,  and  like  a  sun  our  hero  will  shine  in  the  radiation  of  cardinal  virtues 
through  the  ages. 

Confiding  boldness  was  the  key  to  minor  faults,  and  the  grand  solution  and 
secret  of  supreme  power.  Character  in  the  soldier  he  read  like  an  open  book,  and 
dared  to  trust.  Generous  in  praise  for  corporal  as  for  captain ;  cordial  and  gallant, 
returning  the  sword  of  the  vanquished  Lee,  a  new  leaf  was  added  to  the  page  of 
chivalry,  and  a  character  you  search  for  vainly  in  the  Iliad  of  Homer  or  in  the 
annals  of  modern  warfare.  The  cautious  have  only  lean  virtues,  and  in  war  are 
allied  to  show,  and  sink  with  mediocrities.  They  are  the  old  side-judges,  wise 
only  in  their  silence ;  pulpy  and  fair  in  the  shade,  but  clever,  pompous  negations. 
This  was  not  Grant  in  robust  manhood.  He  feared  neither  petty  thieves,  the 
assassin's  bullet,  nor  the  rising  fame  of  a  ranking  general.  A  silent  tongue  left 
his  fame  to  the  candor  of  the  world,  and  warm  blood  pulsated  in  his  mission,  leap 
ing  like  a  cataract  rushing  to  the  ocean.  Like  a  Cromwell,  he  trusted  a  God  "to 
cover  his  head  in  the  day  of  battle"  —  never  planned  for  defeat,  but  for  victory, 
sounding  the  trumpet-call  from  Cairo  to  Richmond  —  forward!  forward! 

My  countryman,  with  bold  actors,  God's  confiding  agents,  there  may  be  seem 
ing  errors,  but  they  are  forgotten  at  the  tomb,  and  it  were  as  profane  in  their  men 
tion  to-day,  as  the  illusion  of  Washington  that  Arnold  was  a  patriot,  or  that  the 
traitorous  kiss  of  Judas  discredits  the  purity  of  the  world's  Savior. 


A    PROVIDENCE. 


The  world  can  add  to  its  providential  deliverers,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  Wash 
ington,  Cromwell  and  Moses,  another  wondrous  personage  under  the  divinity  that 
shapes  national  existence.  What  agonies  for  his  coming,  in  camp,  amidst  prison 
horrors,  city  mobs  and  wasting  credit!  I  saw  the  General  McClellan,  skilled  in 
entrenchment,  and  in  grand  parades.  Into  the  face  of  the  gallant  Hooker  I  looked 
to  discern  the  dashing  eye  under  too  narrow  a  brow  to  gauge  the  campaign.  The 
hand  of  Burnside  we  took  in  sorrow  as  he,  with  modest  distrust,  threw  aside  a 
commander's  commission.  Who  next?  The  voice  of  the  great  war  minister  and 
the  wisdom  of  Lincoln  pointed  to  the  hero  of  Donelson  and  Vicksburg;  late  an 
obscure  clerk  and  poor  wood-chopper,  novf  to  guide  our  destiny.  He  is  a  dull  stu- 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  185 

dent  of  Providence  who  does  not  see  him  held  back  and  in  reserve  for  the  blows 
that  destroyed  slavery,  an  armed  rebellion,  collossal  in  malignant  power,  and  for 
stern  splendid  statesmanship,  on  the  death  of  the  martyr  Lincoln  by  the  assassin's 
bullet. 

We  were  drifting  like  a  dismasted  ship  on  the  breakers.  Victories  in  the 
West  were  counterbalanced  by  rebel  success  in  the  East.  Drafting  was  resisted, 
soldiers  were  discouraged.  The  great  powers  of  the  earth  were  in  secret  league 
with  our  enemies.  Repudiation  threatened  the  national  credit.  Oh !  what  gloomy 
forebodings  of  border  warfare  blackened  by  pillage,  the  crimes  of  assassination, 
bloody  insurrections  and  a  race  war,  with  the  woes  in  apocalyptic  vision,  "blood 
flowing  to  the  horses'  bridles." 

WHAT    CAME  ? 


The  virtues  and  blessings  of  peace  can  never  be  pictured  but  in  faintest  out 
line,  in  praise  of  our  dead  chieftain.  A  million  soldiers  returned  to  their  families ; 
slavery  dead;  thirty-eight  great  states  revolving  like  planets,  smoothly  in  their 
orbit,  not  twenty-eight  weak  in  dissension  and  barricaded  for  war.  American,  sig 
nificant  of  unity,  renown  and  power.  A  home  where  three  per  cent,  bonds  are  at  a 
premium,  as  in  the  great  money  marts,  our  credit  leading  all  nations.  Of  a  people 
rising  from  wealth  in  the  sum  of  sixteen  thousand  millions  of  dollars  in  1860  to 
fifty  thousand  millions  in  1885,  and  surpassing  in  growth  of  population  in  each 
post-bellum  decade  every  rival ;  the  envy  of  monarchs. 

The  ex-president  becomes  a  guest  of  the  nations.  How  responded  and  bore 
our  guest  ?  In  cultivation  of  fraternity  which  gave  us  fifteen  millions  by  arbitration 
from  England.  Asking  not  for  his  country  honor  by  prowess  on  the  sea,  nor  a 
standing  army,  rather  one  hundred  millions  annually  to  the  families  and  soldiers 
sick  and  maimed  by  war.  Our  free  church  and  free  schools  were  held  up  as  our 
crown  jewels,  with  the  fervor  of  an  advocate. 

There  was  unfolded  in  later  years  a  personal  character  more  to  be  admired 
than  a  public  career  at  home  or  abroad.  He  was  greater  in  poverty,  and  facing 
the  storm  of  detraction,  as  he  who  rules  his  own  spirit  is  greater  than  he  who  taketh 
a  city.  Then  the  knowledge  of  fatal  disease  brought  no  murmur.  "  Self-schooled, 
self-scanned,  self-honored,  self-secure."  Mortals  could  not  add  to  his  renown. 

Friends,  behold  the  silent,  pale,  great  captain!  He  has  given  testimony  to 
the  value  and  divinity  of  the  Christian  religion  and  bravely  welcomes  his  last 
enemy,  the  "  King  of  Terrors  ".  Mightier  than  the  famed  shield  of  Achilles  is  his 
protector,  bearing  the  loves  of  this  world,  and  awaiting  the  welcome  of  patriots  and 
comrades,  Lincoln,  Rawlins,  Reynolds,  McPherson,  Thomas,  and  a  cloud  of  gallant 
spirits  passed  before.  The  glow  of  the  camp  fire  is  dimmed  in  the  brightness  of 
the  coming  of  the  great  deliverer  for  whom  the  lips  move,  and  the  voice  breaks 
forth  in  praise.  That  spirit  invincible  on  earth,  is  at  rest  in  a  higher  realm  —  it  is 
the  peace  of  God. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Thaddeus  Stevens  —  Schuyler  Coif  ax  —  John  A.  Logan — Gratz 
Brown — David  Davis  —  Henry  S.  Foote — Jefferson  Davis — • 
Gen.  Winfield  Scott — Henry  Clay  —  Daniel  Webster. 

THADDEUS    STEVENS. 

IT  is  unusual  for  men  of  mark  to  obtain  their  just  rank  while 
living.  Mortuary  service  is  fittingly  sympathetic,  adulatory;  but 
stirring,  fierce  partisans  mould  events  which  conspire  to  delay  a 
just  verdict  long  after  the  death  of  the  actor. 

Since  the  death  of  Thaddeus  Stevens  there  has  been  ample  time 
to  temper  the  praise  of  ardent  admirers,  and  to  blunt  the  shafts  of 
enemies.  Having  enjoyed  the  favor  of  his  friendship,  and  rare 
opportunities  to  know  him  in  the  national  House  of  Representa 
tives  during  the  late  war,  I  attempt  with  the  admiration  of  a 
friend  to  compress  ample  material  for  a  volume  into  this  article  in 
vindication  and  illustration  of  a  great  character. 

Did  not  our  last  quarter  of  a  century,  fruitful  of  forces,  pro 
duce  one  great  American  commoner  ?  The  British  House  of  Com 
mons  may  represent  our  House  of  Representatives,  from  which 
only  a  leader  in  alliance  with  popular  measures,  an  American  com 
moner,  may  spring.  Mr.  Elaine  in  his  eulogy  on  Garfield  before 
Congress,  so  justly  praised,  cites  three  parliamentary  leaders,  Mr. 
Clay,  Mr.  Douglass  and  Thaddeus  Stevens.  Generosity  to  one  of 
another  political  school,  it  is  fair  to  infer,  moved  to  the  naming. 

He  graduated  at  Dartmouth  College,  New  Hampshire,  not  far 
from  his  home,  and  was  soon  engaged  as  a  teacher  in  the  Academy 
at  York,  Pennsylvania,  for  which  position  his  discipline,  clear  per 
ception  and  enthusiasm  made  him  of  service  in  giving  impetus  to 
many  students,  later  conspicuous  and  able  in  the  higher  pursuits 
of  life.  No  one  had  a  higher  contempt  for  the  exploits  of  a  mere 
genius  or  the  profundity  of  mere  impromptu  speeches,  which  had  a 
preface  in  boast  of  ignorance  of  books. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  187 

A  mind  trained  by  thought,  severe  study  and  wide  reading, 
made  him  invincible  in  debate.  Taking  evidence  in  trials  of  great 
importance,  he  rarely  made  notes ;  for  his  memory  was  tenacious, 
nor  was  he  ever  confused  with  a  manuscript,  save  in  the  prepara 
tion  of  state  papers  and  the  drafting  of  bills.  Having  derived  so 
much  aid  from  a  classical  education,  he  was  the  friend  of  the  col 
lege  and  patron  of  poor  students,  struggling  and  weary  on  the  road 
he  had  traveled. 

In  person  the  Commoner  had  a  shrug  to  the  shoulders  that  sug 
gested  a  push  of  the  head  from  a  graceful  position.  The  club-foot 
forbade  facile  locomotion  and  dwarfed  the  whole  man  save  brain 
and  imprisoned  vivacity.  He  had  an  ambition  at  war  with  the 
restraints  of  sedentary  life;  business  was  rest,  and  fox-hounds  a 
diversion  in  the  chase  of  a  bold  rider.  That  head,  in  later  life, 
covered  by  a  sandy  wig,  was  a  study — wide  and  bulging  above 
the  ears,  high  in  front,  prominent  above  the  eyes,  which  were  deep 
set  and  radiant.  The  facial  muscles  were  strong,  and  a  broad  chin 
sent  up  lips,  the  lower  projecting,  that  were  an  index  of  a  character 
determined  in  repose,  and  to  be  dreaded  for  their  uses  in  those  con 
tests  where  giants  drew  upon  every  weapon  at  command. 

With  humorous  reply  he  would  say,  My  organism  is  not  favor 
able  to  retreat,  and  must  leave  to  my  friends  the  honors  to  be 
won  by  the  arts  of  locomotion  backward.  There  was  no  native 
melody  in  voice ;  it  was  on  a  high  key,  capable  of  winging  sarcasm 
and  scorn  with  stinging  effect  on  a  venturesome  opponent.  To  a 
critic  of  legislators  there  was  galling  autocracy  in  his  leadership, 
and  a  verdant  legislator  would  seek  by  artful  attack  to  question 
the  veteran's  right  to  lead;  but  there  is  no  record  of  a  second 
attempt  by  the  same  person.  "  I  hope,"  said  he,  "  I  may  be  cred 
ited  with  virtuous  silence  on  this  occasion ;  let  the  wounds  made 
by  the  gallant  foe,  wide,  gaping,  plead  my  cause  " ;  which  conveyed 
sarcasm  effective  above  any  formal  reply ;  still  there  was  alertness 
in  a  question  of  motives  or  war  policy,  and  always  a  victor  who 
left  the  impression  of  a  courageous,  learned  and  adroit  leader  of 
men  in  the  seas  of  strife. 

Legislative  tricks  were  his  great  aversion,  and  justice  and  full 
credit  to  his  adversary  was  his  shield  in  the  forum  of  debate. 
This  called  for  compliments,  and  led  him  to  ask  an  opponent  if  it 
were  not  a  better  policy  "to  proceed  with  arguments,  if  he  had 
any,  rather  than  sickening  his  chosen  victim  with  honey  ".  Fail- 


188  EEMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

ing  to  vote,  or  questioning  a  majority  edict,  brought  such  glee  to 
democrats  that  in  the  midst  of  the  plaudits  for  a  brave  man,  he 
shouted,  "  I  can  stand  reproaches,  but  the  praise  you  bestow  has  an 
offensive  odor." 

Petty  points  were  his  great  aversion,  holding  that  the  smallest 
of  mortals  were  equal  to  an  objection  or  a  technicality;  and  order- 
sticklers  were  the  least  reliable  when  true  men  were  in  demand. 
"There  was  an  hour  lost  in  a  wrangle  over  order  and  the  manual 
which  a  school-boy  of  common  sense  might  have  settled,  I  hear, 
but  I  slept  in  blissful  ignorance  and  am  ready  for  business  if  the 
skirmishers  will  allow  it." 

Contested  election  cases  were  treated  as  a  side  show,  settled  as 
a  rule  by  the  political  complexion  of  the  jury,  but  so  often  had  he 
broken  from  party  moorings  that  fervent  appeals  were  made  for 
help.  "No,  no  —  I  cannot  speak,  when  we  come  to  vote." 
"But,"  said  the  pleader,  "he  is  a  scoundrel."  "They  say  the 
other  is,"  was  the  reply,  "and  I  must  know  which  is  worse.  Don't 
count  me  where  I  judge  you  have  more  than  a  legal  quorum." 

He  was  a  trusted  guide  in  storms,  which  neither  pacific  policy 
nor  compromise  could  avert;  a  constructionist  and  blender  of  a 
nation,  riven  by  sectional  strife  and  the  crime  of  slavery.  Clay, 
with  the  rarest  endowment  of  an  orator,  closed  his  grand  life  in 
tender,  yet  unavailing  persuasion.  Douglass  piloted  the  party  ship 
on  a  rock,  "squatter  sovereignty,"  and  was  only  kindly  spared  to 
counsel  loyalty  to  the  flag  before  his  lamented  death.  In  nature 
the  "triumvirate"  had  little  in  common  save  obscurity  of  birth. 
Their  providential  mission,  too,  was  unlike ;  the  times  determining 
for  the  earlier  sages  the  role  of  conciliation  in  the  way  to  the  pres 
idency,  while  eternal  right  and  the  subjugation  of  traitors  was  the 
absorbing  thought  of  Stevens,  regardless  of  smiles  or  frowns. 
Thus  it  was  that  he  was  fitted  by  education,  converse  with  men 
and  undaunted  courage,  to  spring  to  the  front  by  the  only  divine 
right  known  to  man,  when  rebels  were  confronted  in  speech, 
national  credit  maintained,  amidst  the  clamor  of  party  aspirants 
and  untold  wastes  in  war.  Hence  he  was  for  many  years  a  trusted 
leader  holding  without  a  peer  supreme  control  in  the  republic. 

The  eccentricity,  brusque  manner  and  witty  sayings  of  Mr. 
Stevens  enveloped  his  character  in  a  cloud  of  prejudice  and  made 
his  name  a  conduit,  for  years,  of  doubtful  story  and  legend; 
because  of  which  he  is  to-day  judged  at  a  disadvantage.  To  be 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS.  189 

specific,  he  was  thought  to  be  wanting  in  refinement;  coarse,  a 
stranger  to  generous  emotion,  malignant  without  reverence,  infidel 
and  blasphemous. 

These  are  allegations,  alike  unjust  and  cruel  in  the  light  of  the 
late  and  early  history  of  the  poor  orphan  club-foote*d  boy.  Mr. 
Stevens,  with  filial  devotion  made  an  annual  journey  of  hundreds 
of  miles  to  his  native  Vermont  to  comfort  and  support  the  mother 
of  whom  he  said :  "  It  is  the  great  joy  of  my  life  to  be  able  to  give 
to  my  mother  a  well-stocked  farm,  and  an  occasional  bright  gold 
piece  which  she  loved  to  deposit  in  the  contribution  of  the  Baptist 
church  which  she  attended.  She  worked  day  and  night  to  educate 
me,  for  I  was  feeble  and  lame  in  my  youth.  I  tried  to  pay  her 
afterward,  but  the  debt  of  a  child  to  his  mother  is  one  of  the  debts 
we  can  never  repay/' 

The  child  was  father  to  the  man,  and  one  of  the  last  acts  of  his 
life  was  making  provisions  in  his  will  whereby  the  sexton  was  "to 
keep  his  mother's  grave  in  good  order  and  plant  roses  and  other 
cheerful  flowers  at  the  corner  of  said  grave  every  spring".  A 
bequest  was  also  made  of  one  thousand  dollars  toward  the  estab 
lishment  of  a  Baptist  church  to  which  his  mother  belonged,  near 
the  old  home,  and  with  this  reason :  "  I  do  this  out  of  respect  to 
the  memory  of  my  mother  to  whom  I  owe  what  little  of  prosperity 
I  have  had  on  earth,  which,  small  as  it  is,  I  desire  most  emphatic 
ally  to  acknowledge."  This  is  an  index  to  a  character  of  delicate 
sensibility.  Of  his  limited  means  he  paid  a  surgeon  for  restoring 
a  poor  lame  boy  to  soundness,  an  act  which  offered  so  much  pleas 
ure  that  he  enjoined  the  doctor  to  treat  any  poor,  deformed,  disa 
bled  boy  whom  he  should  meet,  at  his  expense.  On  a  reverse  in 
business  partial  friends  proposed  a  gift  of  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars  —  a  gift  delicately  declined  in  further  proof  of  a  sensitive, 
rather  than  of  a  sordid  nature. 

Women,  notably  the  Sisters  of  Charity,  were  the  largest  dispens 
ers  of  his  charities,  whose  abundance  was  known  only  by  the  poor 
and  their  Maker.  Pledges  were  often  made  when  money  was  not 
at  hand.  An  incident  is  given  by  an  irreverent  friend  without  a 
personal  guarantee  of  its  authenticity.  It  is  the  story  of  gain  of 
money  at  a  game  of  chance.  When  nearing  the  capitol  the  party 
was  accosted  by  the  ladies  holding  his  pledges,  whom  he  surprised 
with  a  roll  of  bills,  saying  with  a  smile,  "  God  moves  in  a  myste 
rious  way  his  wonders  to  perform." 


190  EEMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY  TEAKS. 

Never  marrying,  his  bachelorship,  like  that  of  President  Bu 
chanan,  was  the  occasion  of  many  a  comment,  but  often  cruel,  for 
there  is  a  story  of  delicate  sensitiveness  to  the  allurements  of  love 
and  beauty  which  has  more  than  a  tinge  of  sad,  youthful  romance. 
It  is  of  a  death  that  brooded  over  him  with  raven  wing.  The  ideal 
beautiful  girl  at  his  early  home  was  ignorant  of  his  emotions,  and 
passing  to  and  returning  from  the  boarding-school  found  only  a 
formal  greeting  from  him,  so  great  was  the  disparity  in  their  con 
ditions — hers  of  affluence,  his  of  poverty  ;  thus  he  withheld  marked 
attentions,  and  hesitated  to  proffer  his  hand  until  he  should  have 
gained  a  name  to  reflect  honor  upon  a  bride.  He  retained  the 
secret,  and  at  length  disclosed  it,  only  too  late,  to  the  ideal  of  his 
heart,  who,  to  his  great  grief  was  pledged  to  another,  and  who 
removed  to  the  old  Pine  State,  where  his  earliest  and  latest  love 
found  a  grave. 

The  policy  of  confiscation  brought  upon  hjm  the  charge  of  a 
vindictive  spirit.  It  was  this  political  measure  of  which  Mr.  Hor 
ace  Greeley  designated  Mr.  Stevens  as  the  author  in  his  Richmond 
speech  of  1867,  in  conferring  a  warm  compliment  upon  him  as  the 
leader  of  his  party.  Congress  had  sanctioned  the  law  supported 
by  precedent  and  the  authority  of  eminent  publicists ;  and  it  is  not 
denied  the  measure  was  pressed  with  vehemence  as  a  policy  prom 
ising  land  to  the  slaves  which  would  bind  them  more  firmly  to  the 
Union. 

Abduction  and  even  his  assassination  had  been  planned  by  ene 
mies  at  the  capitol,  the  former  only  averted  on  a  certain  occasion 
by  the  threat  of  sure  death  in  the  city  suburbs  if  the  hireling  did 
not  halt  and  return.  Andrew  Johnson,  in  a  public  speech,  had  des 
ignated  Wendell  Phillips,  Sumner  and  Stevens  as  fit  for  a  gibbet. 
In  face  of  all  Mr.  Stevens  hesitated  to  frame  articles  of  impeach 
ment  lest  he  should  be  judged  vindictive. 

The  Hon.  Mr.  Julian  in  his  "Political  Recollections ",  says: 
"The  profane  words  of  Mr.  Stevens,  always  the  central  figure  of 
the  House,  were  frequently  carried  on  the  shafts  of  his  wit  and 
lost  in  the  laughter  they  provoked."  Facts  will  discredit  this 
judgment,  giving  another  tone  and  hue  to  current  stories.  On  a 
recess  in  the  House  Mr. addressed  Mr.  Stevens  with  an  oath- 
laden  tongue,  to  find  only  a  cold  greeting:  "I  hate  to  be 
addressed  with  such  blasphemy  as  <by  G — d',  etc.  I  deny  that  I 
am  profane,  and  for  years  have  held  it  vulgar,  but  I  do  say  'damn5, 


EEMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY   YEAES.  191 

for  the  provocations  are  great.  It  is  war  time ;  but*  the  counsels  of 
my  childhood  will  not  allow  me  the  use  of  a  blasphemous  word." 

The  great  Commoner,  if  not  a  saint,  was  far  from  an  infidel. 

Mr.  was  introduced,  who  said:  "Mr.  Stevens,  I  believe  I 

have  the  honor  of  your  company  as  a  Free  Thinker."  "  Yes,"  was 
the  reply,  "  rather  free  until  I  submit  to  your  dogma,  if  you  have 
one.  My  mother  was  a  soft-shell  Baptist,  a  reputable  thinker  in 
her  time,  and,  as  I  remember,  held  the  Ten  Commandments  good 
law  and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  as  orthodox.  I  am  one  of  her 
poor  disciples;  good  morning,  sir."  In  derision  of  a  speaker  he 
said :  "  How  he  hugs  the  delusion  of  no  hereafter ;  he  would  write 
God  with  a  little  •'  g ',  but  don't  criticise  brutal  ideas  if  he  has  a 
brute's  end  to  match." 

The  notorious  inebriation  of  Andrew  Johnson  brought  up  Mr. 
Stevens'  opposition  to  the  use  of  alcoholic  drinks.  "  I  became  ter 
ror  stricken,"  he  says,  "on  the  death  of  my  particular  friend,  who 
found  his  way,  inebriated,  to  his  home  but  died  in  the  hallway, 
unable  to  find  the  way  to  his  room.  Thereupon  I  demolished 
every  keg  and  bottle  of  liquor  in  my  cellar.  We  were  in  the 
whirlpool  together  thirty  years  ago  when  I  made  the  short  turn. 
At  the  national  temperance  meeting  in  the  capitol  I  sent  over  my 
adherence  by  Mr.  Dodge,  and  I  am  complimented,  as  I  see  by  the 
paper,  that  my  declaration  brought  out  applause.  I  vote  for  a 
Mohammedan  against  drunkenness  before  an  orthodox  Christian 
liquor  dealer.  Slavery's  twin  —  the  dram  shop — will  stir  the 
nation  next.  They  come  so  near  to  me  that  I  am  saddened  to 
think  of  them." 

I  could  quote  many  of  his  memorable  sayings,  public  and  pri 
vate;  but  none  are  more  eloquent  than  his  choice  of  burial-place. 
It  was  sympathy  for  the  poor  victims  of  prejudice,  which  led  to 
the  characterization  of  the  exclusion  of  the  colored  race  from  the 
cemetery  as  an  impious  act.  To  strike  impressively  at  this  vulgar 
inhibition,  he  chose  a  new  spot  without  the  odious  restriction  as 
his  place  of  burial,  with  this  protest  to  be  read  on  his  tombstone 
until  time's  effacing  fingers  have  abolished  his  name  from  marble : 
"I  repose  in  this  quiet  and  secluded  spot,  not  from  any  natural 
preference  for  solitude,  but  finding  other  cemeteries  limited  by 
charter  rules  as  to  race,  I  have  chosen  it  that  I  might  be  enabled 
to  illustrate  in  my  death  the  principles  which  I  have  advocated 
through  a  long  life  —  equality  of  man  before  his  creator." 


192  REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY  YEARS. 

SCHUYLER    COLFAX. 

This  statesman  I  have  briefly  mentioned  in  Chapter  IX.,  but  it 
would  be  unjust  to  his  memory  not  to  speak  more  fully  of  him. 
Before  his  death,  we  met  in  Denver,  where  his  sister  resides,  and  a 
more  jocund  spirit  could  hardly  dwell  in  manhood,  with  a  rose  on 
the  full  cheek  and  the  elastic  step  of  youth.  His  devotion  to  the 
fortunes  of  Elaine  was  not  more  intense  than  a  conviction  that 
he  would  be  elected  and  astonish  the  world  with  a  brilliant 
administration. 

In  the  year  1863,  Colfax  was  the  favorite  of  the  nation,  win 
ning  fame  as  an  editor  in  the  West,  reclaiming  a  congressional  dis 
trict,  and  becoming  well-known  as  chairman  of  the  committee  on 
post  offices  and  post  roads  —  alert,  incisive  in  speech,  broad  in 
policy;  a  parliamentarian,  and  upheld  by  President  Lincoln,  and 
Greeley,  of  the  Tribune.  There  was  no  secret  in  his  elevation  to 
the  speaker's  chair.  Favor  to  Iowa  was  so  marked  as  to  occasion 
remark  if  not  provoke  jealousy.  Diplomacy  in  securing  positions 
on  committees  is  that  of  which  the  great  public  are  but  little 
aware.  We  were  five  new  members,  and  but  one  —  James  F.  Wil 
son — knew  of  service,  and  that  at  the  foot  of  the  judiciary  com 
mittee,  and  by  good  fortune  those  once  before  him  were  not  of 
this  Congress,  yet  a  score  of  "great  lawyers"  loomed  up  for  chair 
man  and  Wilson  was  to  be  jumped.  Colfax  was  seen,  and  Wilson 
presided  in  war  time  and  reconstruction  over  the  great  committee 
of  Congress.  Did  the  speaker  ever  forget  Iowa  and  her  new  dele 
gation  ?  Price  was  made  chairman  of  the  Union  Pacific  Eailway 
committee,  Kasson  was  on  ways  and  means.  Later,  Allison,  Hub- 
bard  and  the  writer  were  well  placed,  the  latter  surprised  by  pro 
motion  to  the  places  made  vacant  by  the  death  of  Owen  Love  joy. 
It  was  a  feeble  return  for  favor  to  Iowa  that  I  made,  indicating 
Colfax  as  the  name  for  the  prosperous  health  resort  near  us.  A 
sister  with  her  family  came  to  Jasper  county,  as  farmers,  on  his 
advice,  and  when  the  husband  and  father,  a  mail  agent,  was  kept 
from  degradation  by  the  humane  perception  and  acts  of  that  most 
able  and  exemplary  gentleman  and  jurist,  Judge  Love,  who  would 
not  ask  "an  insane  man  to  plead  in  his  court",  a  new  bond  of 
attachment  was  formed,  never  sundered  but  strengthened  by  a 
hundred  welcomes  on  our  soil  as  orator  and  eulogist  of  Lincoln. 

By  whom  did  he  rise  but  by  himself  —  an  expert  journalist, 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS.  193 

adventurous  overland  stage  tourist  to  the  Pacific  coast,  temperate, 
dashing  and  chivalrous  in  debate.  He  was  by  nature  vivacious, 
and  had  cultivated  the  arts  of  magnetism,  which  availed  him  in 
gaining  place  near  abler  men,  but  lacking  his  tact  and  industry. 
Law  he  had  never  studied,  nor  could  he  have  passed  a  prescribed 
civil  service  examination  for  a  clerkship,  but  men  he  read  and 
measured  with  such  precision  that  he  never  blundered  as  an  Indi 
ana  politician.  He  avoided  a  conflict  in  Congress  with  his  superi 
ors  in  debate ;  was  an  apt  prompter  to  the  abashed  new  member,  so 
that  when  the  time  arrived  for  a  speaker's  campaign  the  press  was 
in  line  of  service,  and  cohorts,  all  loyal,  moved  at  the  command  of 
their  captain. 

In  the  stormiest  periods  of  our  national  history  he  dicided 
great  questions  in  the  House  and  in  the  Senate  with  promptness 
and  clear  perception,  winning  the  favor  of  extremest  partisan  foes 
as  a  model  parliamentarian. 

The  secrets  of  his  lapse  into  private  life  were  two:  a  modest 
letter  while  vice-president  that  he  was  not  a  candidate  for  re-elec 
tion,  and,  though  so  far  reconsidered  that  his  name  was  used, 
Henry  Wilson  gained  the  honor  after  a  sharp  contest  and  by  a  few 
votes.  This  was  no  damper  to  a  generous  spirit,  nor  did  it  lose 
him  prestige  or  favor  as  a  worthy  and  astute  leader. 

The  Credit  Mobilier  scandal,  like  a  tempest  in  the  forest  that 
bears  down  the  tallest  trees,  struck  some  of  the  first  of  our  public 
servants  as  with  the  breath  of  a  political  sirocco,  and  among  the 
number  was  Coif  ax,  in  proof  that  detraction  like  death  "  loves  a 
shining  mark".  Oakes  Ames,  who  parceled  out  the  stock  to 
friends  at  a  cash  value,  was  arraigned  for  seeking  to  corrupt  by 
the  sale  of  thousands  of  dollars  worth  of  this  property  to  eleven 
members  of  Congress.  •  There  was  a  morbid  thirst  for  scandal,  and 
a  victim,  as  in  the  days  of  Pontius  Pilate,  was  demanded  and  two 
were  found  worthy  of  expulsion.  Ames,  who  had  sacrificed  a 
collossal  fortune — millions  to  join  the  two  oceans  by  iron  rail,  and 
had  become  poor,  and  James  Brooks  of  New  York,  a  veteran  editor, 
congressman  and  orator  for  democracy,  were  expelled  —  Ames  to 
die  of  a  broken  heart  because  of  injustice,  and  Brooks  later,  never 
recovering  from  the  hasty  verdict  which  clouded  a  brilliant  career. 

In  the  sequel  there  has  been  a  revolution  in  public  opinion  in 
regard  to  Oakes  Ames'  motives,  as  evinced  by  the  unanimous 
request  of  every  senator  and  representative  in  the  late  General 


194  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS. 

Assembly  of  Massachusetts,  together  with  that  of  thousands  of  our 
most  eminent  citizens  of  all  parties,  that  Congress  should  erase 
their  resolution  of  censure. 

Colfax,  who  was  alleged  by  the  testimony  of  Ames  to  have 
profited  by  the  stock  held  in  the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars, 
made  a  denial,  but  being  out  of  office,  there  was  no  formal  verdict 
in  the  case.  Colfax's  denial,  with  explanations  and  strong  corrob 
orating  facts  in  his  favor,  were  held  as  conclusive  evidence  of  his 
integrity,  by  friends.  The  act  of  holding  stock  was  no  longer 
deemed  a  wrong,  for  accepting  bribes  was  not  charged,  but  it  was  a 
denial  which  involved  a  contradiction  of  Ames'  book  and  verbal 
testimony.  This  is  a  brief  historic  record,  which  outlines  facts 
leading  to  the  conviction  that  a  confiding  trust  and  not  a  timid  dis 
trust  would  have  saved  a  great  character  from  political  expatria 
tion  from  the  councils  of  statesmen.  There  is  left  but  a  charitable 
construction  to  be  put  on  the  deeds  of  both,  involved  in  this  con 
troversy  —  a  mistake  by  each  in  the  multiplicity  of  vexatious  cases, 
rather  than  an  untruth,  which,  unconfessed,  no  matter  of  charity 
can  cover. 

This  Colfax  said  and  could  afford  to  say :  "  I  seek  no  political 
recognition,  and  ask  neither  party  nor  friends  to  bear  this  load  of 
scandal.  It  is  my  aim  to  cultivate  a  cheerful  temper,  and  prove 
that  I  have  not  been  unworthy  of  the  honors  received  at  the  hands 
of  my  countrymen."  So  I  remember  his  words,  which  were  in 
accord  with  a  life,  charitable  to  the  unfortunate  and  to  enemies, 
radiant  in  words  and  deeds,  to  outlive  one  of  the  incidents  to  noto 
riety  and  fame.  The  severest  wintry  blasts  did  not  prevent  the 
gathering  from  far  and  near  of  multitudes  on  the  sad  funeral  occa 
sion  at  South  Bend,  over  which  city  sorrow  brooded. 

The  life  of  Schuyler  Colfax  was  a  personal  protest  against 
grossness,  profanity,  intemperance  and  infidelity ;  a  shining  exam 
ple  of  filial  devotion,  of  industry,  political  sagacity,  generous 
impulse  and  consummate  generalship. 

GRATZ    BROWN. 

He  was  caricatured  as  a  tag  on  the  coat-tail  of  the  great  editor, 
Greeley.  And  what  are  the  facts  ?  Gratz  Brown  was  of  a  fine 
family.  He  was  a  student,  a  graduate  with  high  honors.  Then 
he  electrified  the  nation  as  a  member  of  the  Legislature  of  Mis* 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  195 

souri,  when  about  thirty  years  of  age,  with  eloquent  and  earliest 
philippics  against  slavery.  The  great  Thomas  H.  Benton  said  to 
me  in  1853,  in.  St.  Louis,  that  Brown  was  a  doomed  man,  either  to 
die  by  ruffianism  or  become  a  conspicuous  actor.  Southern  people 
remember  his  career  as  a  writer  for  freedom.  At  the  breaking  out 
of  the  war  he  was  commissioned  an  officer;  then  he  became  a 
trusted  friend  of  Lincoln,  arm  in  arm  with  General  Frank  P.  Blair, 
a  cousin;  then  governor,  later  United  States  senator,  it  is  true 
depressed  with  poor  health  but  self-poised,  a  statesman  of  thought 
and  courage. 

On  one  occasion  Senator  Grimes  said:  "Gratz  Brown  has  the 
floor  for  a  speech,  and  he  is  never  common,  but  worth  hearing; 
original  as  a  student  of  affairs."  Then  he  was  a  candidate  on  the 
Liberal  ticket  for  vice-president  with  Greeley  in  1872,  a  place  he 
did  not  seek,  but  did  aspire  to  the  first  place,  supported  by  warm 
personal  friendships.  How  absurd  that  he  went  out  of  sight  by 
that  hireling,  rude,  professional  Nast !  I  saw  him  in  the  cam 
paign,  and  know  he  was  calm,  cheerful,  yet  not  confident  of  suc 
cess  after  tokens  of  treachery  by  the  southern  wing  of  the  party. 
Pictures,  or  jealousy,  or  defeat,  never  disturbed  one  so  gallant, 
who  wore  all  his  many  honors  with  Christian  modesty  and 
forgiveness  for  enemies ;  a  great  favorite  where  best  known,  in  the 
circle  of  the  literary ;  besides,  a  real  hero  on  his  own  soil  in 
denunciation  of  a  slave  system  where  he  was  cradled.  A  wonder 
ful  intellect  sank  in  a  frail  tabernacle,  after  a  grapple  with  great 
questions  and  high  official  stations  held  without  a  hint  of  dishonor. 

A  solution  of  his  quiet  retirement  behind  the  political  curtain 
is  found  not  in  caricature  or  defeat,  but  rather  from  excessive 
stimulation  for  a  time ;  the  bane  of  such  a  genius  often ;  a  habit 
he  overcame  to  become  a  champion  of  sobriety  and  the  cheerful 
citizen,  attracted  by  an  endeared  family,  rather  than  the  allure 
ments  of  politics,  until  he  was  suddenly  called  hence.  In  the  roll- 
call  of  pioneers  and  champions  of  freedom,  there  may  be  no  peer 
to  the  magisterial  Benton  of  Missouri  save  Gratz  Brown,  who  car 
ried  the  lance  of  a  knight,  never  consulting  political  weather,  nor 
relying  on  adepts  in  caucus  "round-ups".  Numbers  did  not  abash 
him,  and  it  is  cruel  calumny  that  he  was  angered  by  derision,  or  a 
stolid  misanthrope.  The  verdict  of  the  gods  would  be  (if  as  of 
old  in  judgment) — a  man  who  abjured  sordid  maxims  in  the  road 
to  fame,  evinced  the  brain  of  a  statesman,  the  courage  of  a  soldier, 


196  REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

and  sounded  the  bugle  call  of  emancipation  on  slave  soil  amidst 
howling  mobs,  the  jeers  of  an  apostate  clergy  and  bold  threats  of 
assassins. 

DAVID    DAVIS. 

Many  in  Iowa  were  in  sorrow  when  Illinois  laid  away  in  sepul 
ture  at  Bloomington  an  eminent  jurist,  statesman  and  devoted 
friend.  Those  who  knew  him  best,  the  Weldons,  Funks,  Fells, 
and  pioneers  of  forty  years  ago,  were  the  saddest  mourners.  Rob- 
ert  Lincoln  was  chief  pall-bearer,  the  son  of  the  martyr,  in  a  sad, 
reciprocal  service,  recalling  anew  the  favor  which  made  the  jurist 
a  justice  of  our  great  court,  and  the  honored  executor  of  the  great 
emancipation. 

I  came  to  know  Mr.  Davis  in  business,  as  an  Iowa  land  owner 
twenty-five  years  ago,  and  to  learn  that  his  estate,  near  the  town 
of  Newton,  came,  like  many  other  tracts,  as  a  retainer,  but  an  inci 
dent  in  his  profession,  which  nursed  a  love  for  the  soil,  and  made 
him  the  favorite  of  agriculturists  and  the  largest  possessor  of  real 
ity  in  the  region,  if  not  affluent  above  all  our  pioneer  land  owners 
—  a  farmer  rather  than  a  speculator. 

There  was  nothing  strange  in  his  political  ambition,  nor  was 
there  one  repellant  feature  in  methods  or  leadership.  He  desired 
the  nomination  for  the  presidency  in  1872,  which  was  given  to  Mr. 
Greeley.  He  was  an  ornament  to  the  bench,  and  not  less  a  favor 
ite  with  the  patriotic  masses  than  with  those  of  the  class  of  the 
late  J.  M.  Walker,  of  the  C.,  B.  &  Q.  Railway,  whose  ardor  was  so 
great  that  on  the  way  to  Cincinnati  he  avowed  to  me  it  would  be  a 
pleasure  to  make  the  journey  on  foot  to  the  Queen  City  if  neces 
sary  to  secure  the  nomination  of  a  liberal  sure  to  sweep  the  coun 
try.  Mr.  Greeley,  I  know,  preferred  Davis'  nomination  to  his  own, 
but  the  candidacy  of  Senator  Trumbull  was  active  and  fatal  to  Mr. 
Davis.  I  mentioned  his  probable  presidential  nomination  later,  to 
which  he  replied :  "  It  is  idle  to  use  my  name.  The  labor  party 
nomination  has  given  me  no  absolute  strength.  Once  I  had 
expectations,  perhaps  desire,  as  a  liberal,  and  that  was  my  time  if 
ever,  but  despite  devoted  friends  it  was  not  to  be."  The  head 
lands  of  later  political  history  are  well  known.  Democrats  and 
independents  made  him  senator.  The  repute  for  judicial  integrity 
made  him  a  member  of  the  presidential  commission,  but  a  high 


REMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY   YEARS.  197 

sense  of  honor  forbade  a  service  which  partisans  still  hold  cost  Til- 
den  the  presidency,  and  then  followed  a  culminated  honor  in  the 
selection  of  acting  vice-president  by  the  republican  senators  with 
whom  he  was  often  in  opposition. 

Mr.  Conkling  had  made  a  thrust  at  a  senatorial  "fence  rider 
with  doubtful  proclivities ",  which  called  forth  a  reply,  at  once  a 
model  in  diction  and  with  candor  and  emotion  to  make  the  impress 
of  a  patriot  and  fix  his  station  among  statesman,  even  beyond  tem 
porary  obscuration.  It  was  at  the  old  National  Hotel  at  Washing 
ton  that  he  won  by  simplicity  and  cordiality  the  masses.  There 
he  occupied  the  rooms  vacated  in  death  by  his  political  idol,  Henry 
Clay,  whom  he  resembled  in  nothing  save  in  political  aspiration 
and  failure  to  reach  the  goal.  Party  exactions  were  too  great  for 
the  gallant  leader,  and  independents  were  but  blindly-led  cohorts 
fatal  to  Davis,  who  trusted  in  conservative  methods  and  timid 
counsels. 

The  deceased  in  presence  was  colossal ;  twice  the  weight  of  an 
average  senator,  causing  him  to  be  sensitive  to  caricature  and  fre 
quent  mention  of  abnormal  size.  In  the  broad  face  and  cheery 
countenance,  coupled  with  a  hearty  welcome,  there  was  an  attrac 
tion  which  held  friends  as  by  hooks  of  steel.  In  his  person,  his 
tory  and  achievements,  there  is  a  refutation  of  common  opinions 
which  limit  such  endorsements  to  mediocrity.  Tried  by  the  asso 
ciates  of  eminence  and  many  stern  conflicts,  he  must  be  placed 
higher  in  the  world's  esteem  by  the  lapse  of  time. 

JOHN   A.    LOGAN. 

Americans  should  be  drawn  toward  this  statesman-soldier, 
especially  in  view  of  his  political  environment  in  the  Egypt  of  the 
North,  where  he  was  surrounded  by  the  peculiar  allurements  of  a 
dominant  power  in  his  early  manhood,  but  from  which  he  broke 
away  to  recast  of  opinions.  He  became  as  bold  for  the  right  in 
later  years  as  he  was  subservient  in  youth  to  the  baser  intolerant 
party  edicts. 

"  Dirty  Logan  "  was  the  earned  title  of  the  champion  of  Illinois 
black-laws.  His  eye  was  not  opened  to  the  degrading  exactions  of 
the  slave-power,  until  Douglass  had  in  the  name  of  friends  been 
betrayed,  and  fire-eaters  in  speech  blossomed  into  open  traitors  to 
the  flag. 


198  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

He  was  a  soldier  —  the  victim  of  a  lurking  suspicion  by  radi 
cals,  while  touched  by  the  poisonous  breath  of  old  comrades,  jeer 
ing  him ;  but  he  was  not  reached  by  flattery  nor  allured  by  bribes. 
Using  his  own  language  ten  years  after  the  war  —  "I  was  left  to 
fight  my  way  to  confidence,  and  the  post  of  danger  was  welcome  — 
while  silent  and  calm  under  provoking  injustice  in  the  field." 

Time  became  his  vindicator  as  a  soldier,  and  impartial  history 
will  ever  associate  his  name  with  the  first  honored  civilian-general 
of  the  war.  A  violent  temper,  coupled  with  ambition,  could  but 
alienate  some,  and  retard  his  career.  Cautious  generals  sneered  at 
his  rank,  and  the  press  was  cruel  in  criticism,  and  made  much  of 
the  rhetoric  of  one  not  fortunate  in  enjoying  the  early  culture  of 
the  schools.  Still,  he  was  apt  in  story,  bold  in  figures,  merciless  in 
invective.  I  bought  his  book  on  the  Rebellion,  which  I  praised  as 
liberal  and  trustworthy  though  I  knew  that  I  had  found  no  flattery. 

In  his  person  he  could  have  been  taken  for  a  Spanish  prince, 
and  no  mean  compliment.  He  had  a  dark,  keen  eye,  firm-knit 
frame  and  proud  tread.  Did  he,  in  the  Mexican  war,  seek  the 
bubble  reputation  at  the  cannon's  mouth?  He  was  fair  to  his 
foes.  Too  generous  was  he  not  to  credit  his  foe  in  battle  with  a 
devotion  that  showed  the  stuff  for  real  heroes. 

We  met  socially  at  the  Yellowstone  Park,  and  I  loved  the  man 
more  the  nearer  an  approach.  Indulging  in  severe  judgments  of 
men  and  compeers,  his  loves  were  strong.  Without  pretence,  or 
defense  of  inconstancy  as  a  church  member,  he  carried  a  confid 
ing  trust  in  man's  immortal  Captain  and  Guide.  But  "he  was 
ambitious,  and  a  political  slate-maker  ! "  Grant  all,  and  his  ambi 
tion  was  legitimate  and  open,  and  it  was  the  presence  of  rivals  less 
open  that  made  his  acts,  and  the  choice  of  confiding  friends,  a 
necessity.  There  was  neither  the  taint  of  duplicity,  nor  of  venal 
ity,  though  he  was  often  depressed  in  want  of  the  sinews  of  a 
political  campaign. 

It  might  have  been  vanity,  yet  there  was  no  concealment  that 
he  might,  heading  the  presidential  ticket  in  1884,  have  been 
elected,  and  an  impression  prevailed  that  the  soldiers,  and  Illinois 
with  emphasis,  would  make  him  the  leader  in  1888 ;  but  suddenly 
he  was  called  to  join  the  majority  beyond  the  realm  of  politics. 
He  leaves  the  "  Great  Conspiracy ",  a  volume  of  facts  and  bold  phi 
losophy,  as  a  rich  legacy  to  his  countrymen,  yet  not  of  equal  value 
to  his  personal  career  as  a  soldier  and  friend. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  199 

HENRY    S.    FOOTE    AND    JEFFERSON    DAVIS. 

Long  ago,  from  my  gallery  seat,  I  made  a  study  of  the  Missis 
sippi  senators,  Henry  S.  Foote  and  Jefferson  Davis.  What  they 
had  in  common  beyond  professed  hate  of  free  soilers  it  was  not 
easy  to  discern.  Foote  was  a  dark-faced,  baldheaded  man,  reputed 
in  the  streets  to  have  blood  that  suspiciously  tinged  his  skin  under 
the  eye  where  you  locate  the  Crow-foot.  Whether  the  Indian  or 
the  African  color,  they  will  say,  "  Let  him  soar,  for  he  is  a  gor 
geous  southern  orator."  He  was  peripatetic  and  merry  as  a  page 
boy.  With  all  his  bluster  and  dramatic  beatings  over  the  place 
where  a  heart  is  supposed  to  be  located,  the  fire-eaters  really  held 
him  in  contempt  as  a  compromiser  —  staunching  wounds  on  behalf 
of  "  Union  saviors  ". 

Mr.  Davis  was  his  antipode  in  every  aspect,  certainly  an 
unmixed  Caucasian.  He  eloped  with  General  Taylor's  daughter, 
and  I  dare  say  from  his  hauteur  he  has  never  begged  pardon  for 
the  offense.  Wherein  he  was  very  lovable  I  did  not  discover. 
Cheek-bones  high,  nose  very  sharp,  cheeks  gaunt,  lips  compressed 
as  if  in  anger,  undergirt  with  a  chin  which  meant  a  welcome  to  a 
fight  under  any  conceivable  provocation.  The  air  of  a  West  Point 
officer  he  carries,  and  affects  the  importance  of  one  who  won  a 
title  in  the  Mexican  war,  but  is  too  thin  in  person  to  look  well  and 
far  too  stilted  for  plumes  won  in  a  doubtful  war. 

He  detests  compromise,  and  I  liken  him  to  the  shallow  pugil 
ist  with  a  chip  on  the  shoulder.  How  he  listens  when  a  radical 
like  Hale  or  Chase  speaks,  having,  as  I  read  him,  a  morbid  desire 
for  some  lapsus  linguce  on  which  he  can  hinge  a  speech  fit  for  the 
cotton  growers,  or  allow  an  indulgence  in  threats  and  in  speech  on 
the  worth  of  the  Union,  provided  it  has  a  Calhoun  slavery  corner 
stone.  As  a  speaker  he  had  neither  the  fluency  or  the  real  sublim 
ity  of  Foote.  Did  he  ever  smile  ?  There  is  no  record  that  Cataline 
did.  He  had  not  wit  like  Hale,  nor  the  poise  of  Seward,  yet,  I 
thought,  he  will  do  to  watch,  even  though  a  gentleman  senator  of 
good  habits. 

GENERAL    WINFIELD    SCOTT. 

This  venerable  historic  soldier  was  little  seen  in  public  up  to 
the  firing  on  Sumpter,  save  on  grand  occasions.  Who  would  not  be 
vain !  The  hero  of  Lundy  Lane,  and  of  the  Mexican  war,  bring- 


200  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

ing  great  gains  in  treasure.  He  was  tall,  rotund,  well-moulded 
without  the  device  of  padding ;  none  better  than  the  old  general 
could  feel  that,  like  Napoleon  in  his  glory,  "To  be  a  god  you  must 
not  be  too  common  among  mortals.'7 

Had  he  said,  "Let  the  erring  sisters  go  in  peace?"  It  was 
rather  an  opinion  than  high  philosophy.  He  oft  ate  and  drank 
with  the  fire-eaters.  Fratricidal  war,  and  "garments  rolled  in 
blood  ",  had  less  attraction  for  him  than  for  younger  bloods  never 
in  the  smoke  of  battle. 

In  1861  he  was  not  doubted  in  loyalty,  but  regarded  unequal 
by  age  for  the  crisis.  Governor  Grimes  suggested  to  us,  a  group 
of  lowans  in  the  city,  that  we  call  on  the  chief  and  take  home  the 
best  news  to  our  anxious  people ;  for  the  war  was  on,  and  it  was  a 
sad  prospect  of  more  than  a  sixty  days'  conflict. 

It  was  a  sight-seeing,  curious  company,  headed  by  the  governor, 
that,  after  halts,  skirmishing  and  sulphurous  execration  of  red  tape 
lines,  were  ushered  into  the  old  general's  presence — truly  august. 
To  all  save  reminiscences  he  was  dumb,  and  on  an  effort  to  find 
cheer  in  a  military  horoscope,  he  shut  his  eyes  in  blind  noncha 
lance  and  mystery.  He  did  say  that  many  good  soldiers  were 
buried,  victims  of  the  cholera  in  Kock  Island  in  1833,  in  the  Black 
Hawk  war,  where  he  was  stationed,  before  Iowa  was.  So  husky 
was  his  voice  and  dull  the  eye,  that  one  of  our  company  sought  to 
interject  a  western  opinion,  and  our  general  not  only  nodded 
assent,  but  fell  into  a  sleep  at  mid-day.  So  we  retired  guying  our 
spokesman  on  the  speech  and  its  soothing  effects.  This  report  to 
Senator  Grimes  only  confirmed  an  opinion  that,  with  an  old,  imbe 
cile  head,  there  was  more  than  protracted  war  —  disunion.  Before 
night  Mr.  Lincoln,  by  the  senator's  visit,  was  advised  of  this  spir 
ited  reception  given  to  the  senator's  constituents. 

Mr.  Lincoln  said  to  me,  later,  "  You  stirred  up  Grimes  to  swear 
in  madness  over  the  incapacity  of  our  general.  Now,  candidly,  did 
he  color  it  ?  " 

I  answered,  "  He  did  sleep,  and  we  retreated,  not  on  a  bugle 
call,  but  before  he  snored  out  in  prologue." 

It  was  not  long  before  there  was  a  hail  to  the  new  McClel- 
lan,  chief  of  the  army,  but  late  in  the  refrain,  "who  in  triumph 
advances ". 

This  is  no  reflection  on  an  old  soldier  of  seventy-four  years, 
but  a  fact  of  the  times;  a  key  to  the  boldness  of  traitors  and 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  201 

another  evidence  that  our  president  had  not  only  to  create  an 
army,  but  a  delicate  task  in  dealing  with  senility,  sporting  the 
plumes  of  youthful  victories  long  after  the  stamp  of  raven  feet, 
under  once  brilliant  eyes,  should  have  been  a  signal  for  a  less  vain 
hero  to  retire  without  an  official  invitation  by  the  kind-hearted 
Lincoln. 

HENRY    CLAY. 

These  sketches  of  eminent  leaders  may  be  closed  with  more 
distant,  but  not  less  vivid,  recollections  of  the  great  Kentuckian. 
It  is  many  years  ago  that  I  exchanged  salutations  with  Henry 
Clay  at  Washington,  in  the  barber's  shop  of  the  National  Hotel. 
Taking  the  chair  at  call  of  "next",  a  tall,  venerable  gentleman 
opened  the  door,  whom  I  recognized  as  Mr.  Clay,  and  to  him  I 
said,  "It  will  be  a  pleasure  to  give  you  my  turn."  After  some 
hesitation,  and  thanks  for  the  courtesy,  he  said  when  seated, 
"May  I  know  the  name  of  the  gentleman  to  whose  politeness  I  am 
indebted,  while  I  have  visitors  above  waiting  ? "  This  prepared 
the  way  for  his  warm  expressions  of  devotion  to  my  kindred  by 
name  in  New  York,  and  gave  me  a  chance  to  say  that  as  a  Ver- 
monter,  when  the  stages  were  full,  I  was  compelled  to  walk  near 
twenty  miles  to  hear  him  speak  once  at  Burlington.  To  this  he 
replied,  "  I  was  called  the  lion  of  the  occasion,  but  the  roaring  was 
very  poor  pay  for  so  long  a  walk ;  but  come  up  to  iny  room  at 
any  time  after  dinner  and  we  can  talk  at  leisure."  Of  course  I 
accepted  the  invitation,  for  it  was  at  the  time  of  heated  discussion 
on  the  compromise  measures,  and  it  required  a  senatorial  pass  to 
gain  admission  to  the  small  Senate  chamber,  now  occupied  by  the 
Supreme  Court. 

I  heard  Mr.  Clay  make  his  last  public  speech,  but  after  a  pecul 
iar  outside  colloquy.  Webster  had  made  his  7th  of  March  speech, 
on  the  questions  of  compromise.  Extreme  fire-eaters  like  Jeff 
Davis,  were  with  free-soilers,  like  Seward,  Hale  and  Chase,  on 
one  side,  while  Clay  and  moderate  democrats  like  Douglass  and 
Dodge  and  Jones,  from  Iowa,  were  on  the  other.  In  the  midst  of 
a  great  rush  for  seats  my  senatorial  card  was  of  no  avail,  and  only 
the  "  privileged  "  could  find  admission. 

The  door-keeper,  C.  H.  Brainard,  I  knew  well,  and  in  the  pres 
ence  of  an  anxious,  waiting  crowd  I  touched  the  door  to  go  in. 
"No,  not  unless  you  are  a  privileged  member.  Are  you?  There 


202  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

are  new  orders;  the  Senate  chamber  has  been  like  a  rushing  mob. 
Are  you  privileged  ? "  and,  bowing  with  hesitation,  he  asked : 
"A  judge?"  "No."  "Ex-member?"  "No."  "Governor?" 
"No."  "Minister?"  "Yes."  "Pardon  my  in quisitiveness,  from 
what  court,  sir,  if  you  please?"  To  carry  out  my  part  of  the 
comedy  I  solemnly  pointed  up.  Thereupon  Brainard,  the  wit,  said, 
"  I  regret  to  inform  you,  my  friend,  that  will  not  avail  and  bring 
you  under  the  rule,  for  this  government  has  had  no  intercourse 
with  that  foreign  power  for  many  years."  An  original  retort  which 
scattered  the  merry  throng,  and,  after  a  brief  delay. I  came  back  to 
find  admission. 

It  was  near  the  close  of  the  great  debate  of  the  century.  Jeff 
Davis  was  bitter.  Senator  Benton  clutched  the  resolutions,  hold 
ing  them  up,  shouting,  "So  would  I  strangle  the  propositions 
worthy  only  of  derision."  Mr.  Clay,  pale  and  emaciated,  passed 
up  to  the  president's  desk  either  for  a  pinch  of  snuff  or  to  talk 
with  the  clerk  on  an  amendment,  and  it  was  then  in  order  that  he 
said  "Mr.  President"  with  a  bland  expression,  senatorial  dignity, 
and  unusual  cadence  that  hushed  the  chamber  into  the  stillness  of 
sepulchre.  One  hand  rested  on  the  marble  desk,  his  cloak  was 
hung  loosely,  while  a  trembling  hand  was  raised  in  solemn  ges 
tures,  or  oftener  in  wiping  emotional  tears  which  could  not  be  hid 
while  making  a  last  appeal  to  the  Senate  and  his  country.  That 
occasion  revealed  the  secret  of  his  power ;  a  suave  manner,  melodi 
ous  voice,  sublime  expression  and  patriotic  appeal,  with  the  pre 
monition  of  a  dying  speech — the  most  touching  appeal  to  which  I 
ever  listened. 

I  think  there  is  but  one  person  on  Iowa  soil  besides  myself 
who  heard  that  farewell  of  the  great  Commoner,  and  that  is  Hon. 
George  W.  Jones,  now  of  Dubuque,  one  of  Iowa's  then  United 
States  senators.  There  is  no  senator  now  serving  who  was  in  that 
body  in  1851  and  1852. 

Has  time,  civil  commotion,  bloody  war,  the  edict  of  emancipa 
tion  and  the  fierce  debates  of  reconstruction  brought  into  that 
chamber  —  draped  in  mourning  on  the  29th  of  June,  1852,  for  the 
gallant  leader  —  a  peer  ?  Mr.  Blaine  names  but  two  parliamentary 
leaders  in  his  history,  after  Clay.  Douglass  excelled  in  mere 
animal  force  and  demonstration,  which  moved  the  lower  stratum  of 
society  to  admiration  for  audacity  linked  to  ambition  which  gave 
promise  of  power  in  a  popular  and  gallant  forensic  challenge  in 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  203 

high  forum.  Thaddeus  Stevens  was  a  keener  wit,  more  learned, 
subtle,  clearer  in  ethical  perception  and  bolder  in  enunciation,  but 
wanting  those  native  gifts  in  voice,  endowment  of  person  and 
frank  address  so  conspicuous  in  Clay,  for  whom  by  popular  verdict 
there  have  gone  up  oftenest  the  rude,  loud  huzzah  at  the  hustings, 
and  in  whose  honor  scholars  and  patriots  for  a  generation  at  the 
festive  boards,  with  the  spontaneity  of  lovers,  quaffed  their  wine 
to  the  toast—  "Here  is  to  Harry  Clay  !  " 

What  of  the  striking  personage  whom  an  impressible  young 
man  saw  from  the  Senate  gallery!  Seated,  there  was  nothing  in 
the  wan  cheek  and  sunken  eye  that  suggested  greatness ;  only  pity 
that  a  gallant  and  great  patriot  had  not  reached  the  goal  of  his 
ambition.  He  rises,  and  there  is  nature's  nobleman ;  tall,  unbent 
by  the  toil  of  seventy-five  years,  erect,  firm  and  graceful  in  move 
ment  on  that  floor  where  he  held  a  kingly  sceptre.  The  page  boys 
have  a  benign  recognition,  old  rivals  court  a  smile  as  a  benediction, 
and  the  president  announces  the  senator  from  Kentucky. 

How  fine  the  modulations  in  clearest  tones  and  of  astonishing 
compass  and  power.  You  cannot  escape  the  spell  of  his  magnet 
ism,  nor  be  unmoved  by  that  sublimity  which  is  the  climax  of 
oratorical  expression.  There  is  no  longer  wonder  that  he  is  the 
senatorial  idol,  the  gentleman  with  the  "  five-fold  blazon  ",  the  last 
and  greatest  of  the  "historic  triumvirate".  So  I  remember  the 
man ;  and  in  review  of  all  his  triumph,  he  is  to  be  ever  remembered 
as  "the  father  of  the  American  system  of  Protection". 

Daniel  Webster  was  Clay's  antithesis  —  dark  in  complexion, 
phlegmatic  temperament,  rotund  in  form,  slow  and  studied  in 
speech.  Reading  Clay's  speeches,  his  reputation  was  a  mystery; 
hearing  Webster  in  ordinary  debate  you  would  wonder  at  his  -fame, 
there  being  a  dry  flow  of  words  with  measured  periods,  inciting 
the  wish  that  he  would  break  the  monotony  and  give  you  evidence 
of  that  power  which  gave  him  the  rank  of  the  great  orator  and 
matchless  rhetorician.  He  was  the  orator  for  great  occasions 
where  his  sympathies  were  enlisted  and  there  was  the  challenge  of 
a  foe  worthy  of  his  powers.  His  business  and  financial  speeches 
are  seldom  quoted.  His  set  orations  are  chaste  and  classic,  and 
unequalled.  That  he  was  under  the  cloud  of  the  7th  of  March 
speech  may  account  for  what  was  peculiar  in  his  later  life,  when 
he  was  less  free  in  manner  and  wanting  that  jocundity  made 
attractive  in  the  parlor  and  by  the  sea-side. 


CHAPTEE  XIY. 

Our   Notable    Guests —  Wendell   Phillips — John    Brown — Horace 
Greeley — Henry  Ward  Beecher. 

WENDELL    PHILLIPS. 

THIS  great  character  calls  up  thirty  or  more  of  his  letters  on 
social,  business,  reformatory  and  political  matters,  addressed  to 
myself  and  family.  My  eye  rests  on  his  portrait,  the  best  in  art 
istic  skill  of  all  the  pictures  of  the  comely,  princely,  classic  face  of 
the  renowned  American.  It  is  said  that  Wilberforce  was  "the 
most  learned  and  respected  person  in  all  England".  Has  not  the 
grave  just  closed  over  the  peer  of  that  great  philanthropist  in  long, 
heroic  and  devoted  service ;  one  as  eminent  and  forceful  in  endoAv- 
ment,  meeting  the  demands  of  a  grand  epoch  ?  Wendell  Phillips 
is  not  a  name  to  be  forgotten,  nor  will  it  ever  be  mentioned  by 
those  who  knew  him  personally  without  the  deepest  emotion.  I 
shall  only  trace  him  briefly  in  the  by-walks  on  his  journey,  rather 
than  follow  his  public  eulogists.  It  is  near  forty  years  since  he 
charmed  me  with  his  eloquence.  A  debut  in  Iowa  in  1856, 
described,  may  have  the  merit  of  interest  in  a  state  where  he  was 
a  great  favorite.  He  was  to  speak,  on  his  first  visit,  by  special 
contract  at  Iowa  City — the  state  capitol  —  on  the  Lost  Arts. 

Governor  Grimes,  state  officers,  members  of  the  legislature,  and 
the  leading  minds  of  the  city  were  present.  These  were  the  stormy 
days  of  1856,  and  anticipating  a  desire  to  hear  him  on  political 
topics,  I  suggested  to  Mr.  Phillips  a  change  of  the  lecture,  to 
which  he  replied,  "  I  think  our  timid  friend  the  presiding  officer 
would  faint  at  the  suggestion."  The  "Lost  Arts"  was  in  the 
orator's  best  vein,  but  previously  a  note  had  been  handed  to  the 
governor  and  others  suggesting  a  call  for  the  agitator.  On  an 
agreement  to  second  the  call,  a  request  was  made  at  the  close  for  a 
supplement  without  "bit  or  bridle".  The  chairman  said,  "The 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  205 

lecture  is  over;  we  have  no  further  responsibility."  (A  mob  had 
been  hinted.)  On  a  shouting  vote  for  a  new  speech,  the  excite 
ment  began.  Mr.  Phillips  said  he  would  not  take  time  to  deny  that 
he  was,  as  he  said,  the  incendiary  fanatic,  lighting  up  his  way  with 
burning  parchments  and  constitutions.  He  first  tortured  half-way- 
house  republicans  with  such  keen  wit  and  severity — those  "who 
tempted  their  gods  that  fell  to  be  foot  balls  n- — that  democrats 
shouted ;  then  he  bid  them  repress  their  glee,  for,  with  the  logic  of 
a  political  outlaw,  he  would  have  in  reserve  medicine  for  the  party 
rich  in  professions  of  Jefferson  and  profuse  in  the  apostasy  of  the 
early  Julian.  Their  time  came  and  the  other  side  cheered  with 
great  vociferation  at  these  words :  "  Democracy  which  will  assas 
sinate  Douglass  and  every  northern  man  who  cultivates  his  back 
bone.  The  last  doughface  is  being  moulded  to  have  equal  place  in 
politics  with  the  mummy  of  Egypt.  Garrison  has  no  halter  about 
his  neck;  Sumner  is  in  the  Senate;  your  load  is  the  heavy  corpse 
of  slavery." 

His  figures  of  speech  were  fresh,  pathetic  and  eloquent,  and  he 
was  urged  on  after  repeated  attempts  at  pausing,  by  cries  of  "  Go 
on,"  "Go  on,"  which  carried  the  dramatic  scene  until  after  mid 
night.  The  local  press  was  full  of  it.  Governor  Grimes,  writing  to 
his  wife,  called  it  a  most  exciting  and  enjoyable  treat  by  the  silver- 
tongued  orator.  Mr.  Hepburn,  M.  C.  from  Iowa,  said  a  few  days 
since,  that  this  was  the  speech  above  all  others  he  had  ever  heard 
he  best  remembered,  though  delivered  thirty-five  years  ago. 

Years  later,  on  my  recalling  that  the  Lyceum  president,  with 
protest  and  avowal  that  "he  would  not  be  responsible  for  a  possi 
ble  mob  ",  Mr.  Phillips  said,  "  You  capped  the  climax  in  ridicule  by 
saying  that  '  your  responsibility  is  not  of  the  least  consequence '." 
I  wonder  if  such  a  picture  of  a  human  spaniel  has  recovered  from 
a  fright  in  fear  of  billets  of  wood  and  possibly  accompanying  stale 
eggs.  Now  and  then  such  a  specimen  of  fraud  glides  into  notice, 
thinking  that  he  controls  sentiment,  when  he  is  only  a  poor  show 
of  a  weather-cock  gilded  above  where  live  roosters  learn  to  crow. 
At  best,  he  was  but  an  engineer  building  bridges  for  retreat.  Well, 
it's  a  part  of  the  compensation  in  my  journeys  among  strangers 
that  such  fellows  produce  healthful  merriment. 

Mr.  Phillips'  generosity,  the  spontaneity  of  a  great  heart,  was 
well  known.  For  labor,  impartial  sufferage,  and  many  organiza 
tions,  his  words  were  free.  On  the  request  for  a  lecture  his 


206  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS. 

answer  often  was,  "If  I  choose  my  subject,  probably  ' Slavery', 
only  expenses ;  if  you  choose  my  subject,  one  hundred  dollars  and 
expenses."  I  give  a  fact  in  further  illustration.  At  an  early  day 
I  made  investments  on  his  account.  Delinquents  in  principal  or 
interest  he  would  not  allow  to  be  sued,  but  would  rather  apologize 
for  reminding  as  to  the  debt.  There  was  the  case  of  a  soldier  of 
whom  he  wrote,  "Would  it  not  be  better  to  encourage  him  by 
throwing  off  a  few  .hundred  dollars  ?  I  cannot  afford  to  be  push 
ing,  and  had  rather  lose  than  bring  pain  to  worthy  people."  There 
was  a  Kansas  debtor.  "If  he  is  true  to  the  free  state  men,  and 
has  a  spark  of  the  courage  of  Jim  Lane  and  John  Brown,  let  him 
go !  Kansas  has  good  soil  but  no  certain  value,  until  the  issue  of 
blood  and  war  is  over."  It  was  his  conviction  that  time  with 
lenity  brought  greater  gains  than  litigation.  And  in  the  issue  of 
his  western  affairs  his  philosophy  was  a  true  one. 

The  theological  opinions  of  our  friend  were  far  from  loose,  with 
a  creed  not  atheistic,  as  commonly  held.  He  was  orthodox.  "I 
know  of  no  theological  divergence  from  my  brother-in-law,  Dr. 
Blagden,  minister  of  the  Old  South.  It  is  possible  that  there  are 
deductions  and  doxies  of  which  I  am  ignorant,  but  this  is  not  a 
painful  reflection  when  on  the  march  and  in  assault."  As  late  as 
1880  I  received  from  him  an  account  of  a  heated  discussion  in  a 
circle  of  liberal  authors  and  theologians,  when  he,  like  the  histo 
rian  Bancroft,  gave  an  approval  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  the  theolo 
gian,  in  these  words :  "  He  was  a  great  force  in  New  England  and 
the  ( gods '  of  the  Connecticut  valley  grew  up  under  such  preaching 
as  his.  In  high  character,  devotion  to  public  interests  and  great 
self-sacrifice,  they  were  as  good  as  anything  we  have  to-day." 

It  is  many  years  since,  on  my  proposal  to  make  a  loan  of  his 
money  on  hand  to  an  orthodox  church,  that  a  good  lady  doubted  if 
so  much  of  an  "  infidel  would  like  it ".  Long  after  the  use  of  his 
money  there  was  a  fine  stone  church  being  completed  in  the  city  of 
Grinnell.  Casually  there  came  to  view  a  fact  as  to  his  liberality. 
The  mention  that  this  is  the  ground  on  which  he  once  held  a  mort 
gage,  recalled  that  his  clerk  said  he  was  not  certain  of  its  dis 
charge.  On  inquiry,  the  trustees  had  for  years  forgotten  both 
interest  and  principal.  "Bring  me  the  facts,  and  a  blank,"  said 
Mr.  Phillips,  "  and  I  will  sign  a  release  of  all  at  once." 

To  the  surprise  of  both  parties,  the  indebtedness  amounted  to 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  This  Mr.  Phillips  said  it  gave 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  207 

him  great  pleasure  to  donate  in  compliment  to  the  enterprise  of 
the  church  and  its  sturdy  faith.  At  the  time  of  the  tornado,  in 
1882,  the  first  notice  by  telegram  of  a  few  hundred  dollars  by 
"draft  on  the  way"  was  from  our  friend,  soon  followed  by  a  letter 
requesting  me  to  come  on,  and,  should  he  be  short  of  money,  he 
would  find  a  Phillips  who  wasn't.  Thus  one  thousand  dollars 
came  by  a  simple  suggestion  to  aid  in  rebuilding  the  college  halls 
destroyed. 

Civil  Service  as  a  political  plank,  I  heard  him  often  deride,  and 
long  before  its  late  bogus  exemplar  was  in  office.  These  are  his 
exact  words  in  a  letter  before  me,  written  just  before  his  death : 
"As  to  this  cry  about  Civil  Service,  I  am  against  creating  what 
they  have  in  England — a  set  of  life-offices  eaten  up  with  esprit  du 
corps  and  imbued  with  aristocratic  ideas.  The  worst  element  I 
ever  saw  in  this  country  was  the  close  corporation  of  fellows  who 
had  been  office-holders  in  Washington  for  thirty  or  forty  years, 
and  were,  in  1861,  the  worst  'secesh' — all  dead  against  Lincoln. 
My  civil  sevice  is  going  a  stride  ahead  toward  more  democratic 
institutions."  This  was  enforced  with  a  question,  "Why  should 
not  the  patrons  of  post  offices  and  custom  houses  elect  their  ser 
vants  under  certain  limitations  ?  This  will  be  effectual  reform." 
In  this  connection,  I  mention  that  he  was  emphatically  opposed  to 
the  free  trade  policy  with  which  as  a  student  he  was  enamoured 
theoretically,  but  found  that  in  practical  business  concerns  an 
American  policy  of  protection  proved  to  be  the  highest  states 
manship,  intimately  related  to  our  national  growth  and  financial 
preeminence. 

John  Brown  of  Ossawattomie  came  up  in  association  with  our 
Liberty  Boom  (once  the  parlor),  where  the  old  hero  stacked  his 
arms  and  his  company  of  fugitives  slept.  "  Don't  mar  it  or  part 
with  it,  for  every  year  will  lend  interest  to  the  room  and  your 
guest,  who  with  courageous  blood  dared  to  strike  the  great  blow  of 
the  century." 

On  my  referring  to  the  long,  dreary  burial  trip  of  his  friend, 
among  the  mountains,  he  said,  "  No,  no !  I  was  not  at  the  heels  of 
a  mailed  warrior,  or  a  dead  prince.  It  was  not  my  purpose  to 
keep  from  the  funeral.  Don't  think  me  peculiar  in  my  admiration, 
for  I  could  surprise  the  world  by  telling  what  I  know  of  the  deep 
convictions  of  able,  but  very  cautious  surface  people.  There  are 
now  many  strains  of  blood  that  are  red  and  with  full  bead,  as  in 


208  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

other  days."  Soon  in  our  history  it  was  developed,  only  more 
than  he  saw  in  vision.  When  a  biographer  comes  to  picture  to 
the  life  the  man  of  soul,  Brown,  who  lighted  and  alarmed  with 
rockets  in  our  drear  dark  night,  Phillips  will  be  in  the  foreground 
at  the  burial  of  the  victim  of  the  gallows,  in  the  shadow  of  the 
forests,  in  the  solitudes  of  the  mountains.  None  but  an  inspired 
pen  may  touch  the  theme.  This  will  be  the  epitaph  of  the  hero, 
who  was  of  Revolutionary  blood : 

I  GAVE  MY  SWORD 

TO    THE 

SLAVE  MY  FATHERS  FORGOT. 

The  Phi  Betta  Kappa  oration  at  Harvard  was  bold,  revolu 
tionary  in  mention  of  dynamite  and  dagger  as  a  way  out  of  the 
slavery  of  the  Czar.  He  said :  "  It  is  not  to  be  modified.  All  I 
could  not  enforce.  Demand  a  whole  loaf,  if  you  will  get  half  of  it. 
This  is  the  issue  of  reform  that  only  when  striking  high  will  you 
bring  game  worth  bagging.  They  will  stop  often  at  a  half-way 
house  for  rest.  Place  our  people  in  the  shoes  of  the  banished  mil 
lions  in  Siberia,  and  fearful,  for  their  children,  they  would  say 
'Amen7.  Nothing  heats  blood  like  the  thought  of  victims  in  our 
own  family.  The  virtue  of  a  radical  idea  is  in  making  the  masses 
think.  Yes,  they  complain  that  I  did  not  give  my  Alma  Mater 
credit.  They  of  Harvard  know  all  its  good,  and  it  was  my  painful 
duty  to  remind  of  what  it  was  all  along  their  pleasure  to  forget." 

At  our  last  meeting  in  Boston  he  said,  "  Come  up,  and  call  with 
me  on  our  Governor  Butler ;  I  have  an  errand  and  he  will  be  glad 
to  see  you."  While  on  the  way  across  the  old  common,  these 
words  fell,  "  I  don't  forget  a  general  who  took  our  first  regiment  to 
the  field  in  face  of  Baltimore  assassins,  when  noisy  and  sleepy 
patriots,  with  hands  in  their  pockets,  only  looked  wise.  If  Butler 
is  not  your  leader  in  full  uniform,  he  will  be  mentioned  long  after 
mere  respectable  idle  patriots  are  forgotten.  Your  party  should 
have  cultivated  him  more,  and  cursed  him  less,  for  it  is  too  late  to 
call  him  a  mere  cipher,  with  a  cultured  good  stock  of  brains  and 
immense  vitality  for  emergencies." 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  209 

On  the  State  House  steps  and  in  the  hall,  varied  humanity 
swarmed  about  Phillips  like  insects  over  honey.  As  near  as  I 
could  learn  they  wanted  a  place  and  "  were  broke  ",  if  the  passing 
out  of  bills  from  their  friend's  pockets  was  a  fair  indication  of  the 
pleas  in  poverty.  In  regard  to  all  he  said,  relieved  of  the  crowd, 
"I  am  almost  doomed  to  hermitage,  for  there  is  a  delusion  as  to 
my  influence  and  pecuniary  ability."  I  could  then  guess  why  he 
who  was  an  heir  to  a  fortune,  a  great  income  and  with  frugal 
habits,  had  little  wealth,  as  discovered  at  his  death. 

For  his  home,  which  I  often  visited,  I  have  but  a  word.  Nei 
ther  of  his  residences,  that  on  Essex  street  which  he  left  sorrow 
fully,  at  the  demand  of  the  city  for  improvements,  or  that  on  Com 
mon  street,  were  worth  more  than  ten  thousand  dollars  each. 
Their  interior  finish  was  even  plainer  than  the  exterior.  I  saw  no 
canine  of  any  degree  seeking  his  caresses ;  nor  did  canary  or  mock 
ing-bird  break  the  silence  in  window,  hall  or  library.  His  interest 
was  devoted  to  the  higher,  not  the  lower  brute  order  of  creation. 
His  library  was  truly  a  work-shop.  Newspapers  were  strewn, 
clipped  and  marked,  with  no  semblance  of  order,  save  to  him  who 
knew  all  his  tools  as  readily  as  the  tropes  and  quotations  leaping 
to  his  tongue  in  artistic  form  and  apt  array  in  debate.  There  were 
rare  gifts  in  pictures,  and  embossed  souvenir  volumes  from  many 
lands.  Only  a  poor  library,  by  count,  yet  rich  and  rare  in  quality 
for  reference  and  in  our  standard  literature. 

Whittier,  his  quiet  Quaker  poet  and  delight,  was  most  conspic 
uous  on  the  wall,  both  in  robust  youth  and  later  in  pensive  mel 
lowed  age.  Sumner's  statue,  by  Miss  Whitney,  awakened  my 
interest  and  was  admired  by  the  owner.  The  bust  of  Garrison  and 
miniature  pictures  of  Theodore  Parker,  and  of  John  Brown  in 
marble,  brought  up  the  old  guard,  and  one  to  whose  fortunes  as  a 
martyr  Phillips  linked  his  name  in  the  mingled  pathos  of  tears 
and  enchantments  of  eulogy. 

On  the  occasion  of  my  last  call  at  his  house,  these  were  the 
last  words  heard  from  his  great,  warm  heart :  "  Though  I  am  an 
old  man  you  won't  forget  me,  will  you?  Good-by."  How  would 
it  be  possible  for  those  who  knew  him  ever  to  forget  him  ? 


To  live  in  hearts  we  leave  behind 
Is  not  to  die. 


2iO  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS. 

JOHN    BROWN    OF    OSSAWATTOMIE. 

A  ring  at  my  door,  March,  1859.  "Good  evening,  sir.  I  am -a 
stranger  here  —  pardon  me  —  is  this  Mr.  Grinnell  ?  "  "  That  is  my 
name."  "I  have  heard  of  you  and  do  not  feel  like  a  stranger,  for 
you  married  a  daughter,  I  am  told,  of  my  old  friend,  Deacon 
Chauncey  Chapin,  of  Springfield,  Mass.,  where  I  once  resided." 

"  Will  you  come  and  see  the  daughter  ?  "  "  Yes,  I  am  chilly 
riding,  and  wish  to  open  my  errand  privately." 

Captain  Brown  was  not  slow  in  making  his  way  by  a  mention 
of  his  d.ear  old  friend,  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Osgood;  and  he  said  that 
his  Sunday  timepiece  was  "the  passing  of  your  father's  carriage  011 
the  way  to  church,  and  I  would  tell  my  group  of  children  to  hurry 
or  we  should  be  late  to  church."  He  accepted  an  invitation  to  tea; 
and  his  attentions  to  the  little  girl,  our  prattling  Mary,  soon 
brought  her  playfully  to  his  knees. 

"  Let  me  see  you  in  the  hall  a  moment ;  I  am  not  here  for  a 
social  visit  —  I  am  the  < awful  Brown'  of  whom  you  have  heard  — 
Captain  John  Brown  of  Kansas."  "  Yes,  and  I  was  reading  just 
now  in  the  New  York  Tribune  that  you  were  leading  a  company  of 
fugitives  through  Iowa  to  Canada ;  that  there  was  a  large  reward 
offered  for  your  capture,  and  the  United  States  marshals  were  sure 
to  capture  the  party."  "  Please  let  me  see  the  paper, "  and  on 
reading,  he  said,  "  My  company  is  just  back  here  in  the  grove,  and 
I  am  only  a  scout.  Don't  put  yourself  and  family  in  jeopardy  —  I 
came  for  advice.  I  was  in  the  '  wool  business  ',  and  am  still,  they 
say  derisively,  and  I  hear  you  are  openly.  We  are  sixteen  per 
sons,  with  horses,  and  man  and  beast  must  be  fed,  and  stop  with 
friends  if  we  can,  and  not  spies.  Then,  it  is  Saturday  and  we 
want  rest.  I  make  it  a  rule  not  to  travel  on  Sunday  if  it  can  be 
avoided,  and  to  save  expense  we  can  cook  our  own  food ;  and  we 
need  a  rendezvous  to  stack  our  arms.  What  do  you  advise  ?  "  I 
opened  the  door  into  the  parlor,  since  called  the  "  Liberty  Room  ", 
to  say,  "  This  is  at  your  service,  and  you  can  occupy  the  stalls  at 
the  barn  not  taken.  Our  hotel  will  be  as  safe  as  any  place,  for  a 
part  of  your  company,  and  there  is  no  occasion  to  wait  until  night, 
for  you  have  too  much  of  an  outfit  for  concealment."  My  guest 
I  followed  to  the  door,  the  sun  shining  full  in  his  face,  his  head 
uncovered  with  a  light  and  facial  expression  an  artist  might  covet 
as  a  subject. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  211 

He  stood  very  erect  for  a  man  nearing  sixty  years,  and  wore  a 
full,  long  beard,  almost  white,  with,  hair  parted  and  standing  up, 
suggesting  Andrew  Jackson  as  pictured.  The  chin  was  broad,  lips 
compressed,  the  eye  was  a  keen,  light  gray,  deep  set  and  mild,  only 
flashing  in  moments  of  excited  action,  or  when  crossed  in  debate. 
Charles  Sumner's  opinion  is  mine,  that,  after  seeing  his  bust,  there 
is  nothing  the  sun  shines  upon  so  like  Michael  Angelo's  Moses. 
There  were  no  spurs  on  his  boots,  and  he  was  only  clad  in  a  plain, 
well-worn  suit,  with  nothing  to  suggest  border  warfare  save  a  wide- 
rimmed  hat  and  half-concealed  pistol. 

He  afterward  explained  his  pistol  being  in  sight,  for  there  was 
a  law  against  carrying  it  concealed :  "  But  mine,"  he  said,  "  is  not 
fully  concealed,  and  there  shall  be  no  pretense  for  arrest  on  my 
peaceful  journey." 

He  went  to  Mrs.  Beid's  hotel  and  engaged  stalls  for  the  horses, 
and  supper  for  the  women;  then  went  back  to  meet  his  company. 
The  news  had  spread  as  to  Brown's  arrival,  and  the  town  was  out 
in  good  numbers  to  see  the  outfit.  Couriers,  making  as  good  a  dis 
play  as  possible,  were  glistening  with  spurs,  and  there  was  a  clink 
of  swords  and  in  sight  Sharp's  six-shooters,  which  Mr.  Beecher's 
church  had  purchased.  There  were  canvas-covered  wagons  fol 
lowed  by  horsemen,  altogether  a  novel  affair  before  the  civil  war 
era.  Sentinels  were  placed  by  strict  military  precaution,  and  my 
parlor  in  the  corner  was  a  deposit  for  small  arms,  ammunition, 
swords  and  rifles,  some  having  been  brought  from  concealment 
under  the  canvas. 

Soon  there  were  calls  from  curious  neighbors,  the  most  of  them 
to  cheer,  and  to  propose  an  evening  reception  for  the  guests  in  the 
large  audience  room  used  for  a  church.  One,  more  conservative, 
said,  "The  town  will  be  burned  —  it  had  been  threatened,  and 
every  man  should  be  at  home  to  defend  his  property.  Spies  were 
about  and  the  United  States  marshal  could  easily  make  an  arrest." 
This  nervous,  good  man  I  did  not  bring  into  Captain  Brown's  com 
pany,  but  told  him  of  dangers.  It  was  then  that  he  disclosed  his 
defense.  "We  can  shoot  sixty  times  a  minute,  and  every  one, 
even  of  the  women,  is  a  practiced  dead-shot.  My  men  have  seen 
service  on  the  border,  and  one  or  two  have  a  military,  education. 
Never  fear  !  I  have  found  that  cowards  and  ruffians  are  one  fam 
ily.  Then  I  have  many  times  been  a  fair  mark  for  their  lead 
while  defending  freedom,  but  they  only  touched  my  hair.  But 


212  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS. 

what  shall  I  talk  about  to-night  ?  "  "  Tell  your  story  of  Kansas, 
and,  if  you  feel  safe,  strengthen  the  back-bone  of  our  weak  peo 
ple —  good  men,  but  cautious." 

It  was  a  large  meeting  of  several  hundred  persons,  many  from 
the  groves,  brought,  not  by  sympathy,  but  by  curiosity.  Captain 
Brown  was  calm  in  manner,  but  full  of  emotion  as  he  pictured  the 
assassins  from  Missouri,  and  the  death  of  a  son,  shot  by  outlaws  in 
open  day,  and  another  tortured  to  madness  —  a  worse  fate  than 
death  —  driven  and  chained  like  a  dog,  charged  with  no  offense. 

For  his  part  in  the  Kansas  struggle  he  made  a  formal  defense, 
and  said  that  in  the  taking  of  life  there  was  only  self-defense. 
"The  'drop'  was  in  gaining  the  first  shot,  and  if  you  are  right  and 
your  life  is  worth  more  than  that  of  a  man  with  murderous  intent, 
save  your  own.  Kansas  is  the  home  of  bandits  —  I  am,  with 
Union  men,  alive  to  tell  the  story,  because  we  got  into  their  camp, 
having  learned  that,  on  a  certain  night  while  asleep,  we  were  to  be 
shot.  My  soldiers  got  the  drop  —  only  strategy  —  and  the  violence 
only  proved  that  —  this  is  good  Bible — 'They  that  take  the  sword 
shall  perish  by  the  sword.'  "I  went  to  Kansas  for  peaceful  set 
tlement  and  to  save  a  great  state  from  slavery.  Those  that  went 
there  to  forge  fetters  became  murderers  and  deserved  to  die.  I  am 
not  a  man  of  blood,  but  when  God  sends  me  on  an  errand  I  don't 
wait  for  my  enemies  to  choose  the  battle-ground,  and  if  I  ordered 
men  shot  it  was  because  they  had  planned  murder.  There  is  no 
law  on  the  border.  But  there  will  be  —  the  hirelings,  backed  by 
Buchanan,  cannot  face  lead." 

"  Tell  us  about  your  company ! "  one  called  out. 

"They  call  me  a  'Nigger  Thief.  Am  I?  I  delivered  the 
poor  that  cried,  and  there  was  none  to  help." 

"  But,  Captain,  are  not  your  black  people  from  Missouri  ? " 

"Yes  —  and  I  tell  you  my  company  were  to  be  sold;  we  saw 
them  in  jeopardy,  not  charged  with  crime,  to  be  sent  South  as  cot 
ton  hands,  or  to  the  cane  fields.  They  called  to  me  and  I  rescued 
them.  I  have  never  counseled  violence,  nor  would  I  stir  to  insur 
rection  which  would  involve  the  innocent  and  helpless.  Twelve 
was  the  number  rescued,  and  led  out  from  Missouri,  a  kind  and 
grateful  but  ignorant  company.  They  were  trained  for  defense 
and  would  have  been  obedient  to  command. 

"  Now  I  am  in  the  role  of  a  strategist,  to  keep  the  slaveholders 
away  from  Kansas,  busy  with  their  home  affairs.  They  are  learn- 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  213 

ing  that  they  have  enough  to  do  in  Missouri  without  burning  out 
and  killing  free  state  men  in  Kansas.  What  I  have  got  along 
would  have  sold  for  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  that  is  double  the 
reward  I  hear  offered  for  my  head.  The  underground  railroad  is 
doing  a  great  business,  and  there  is  a  great  demand  for  means  of 
transportation,  but  my  people  brought  their  own.  We  don't  steal 
horses.  They  take  those  raised  by  their  care,  and  sell  them  to  get 
what  is  'kept  back  by  fraud'.  Now  on  Monday  there  will  be 
shown  some  of  our  surplus  horses  for  sale." 

"  What  title  can  you  give  ?  "  called  out  one. 

"The  best  —  the  affidavit  that  they  were  taken  by  black  men 
from  land  they  had  cleared  and  tilled,  taken  in  part  payment  for 
labor  which  is  kept  back." 

A  call  again,  "Was  not  that  stealing?"  "  Stealing  by  a  thing! 
What  are  they  but  things  under  the  slave  code  ?  Every  man  has 
a  right  to  a  reward  for  labor,  and  I  have  made  them  men,  and  they 
want  to  trade  the  fruits  of  their  industry  for  clothes  and  food.  I 
don't  wish  to  debate,  but  deny  that  '  there  can  be  no  good  war,  and 
no  bad  peace '.  Old  men,  if  you  have  got  any  good  blood,  you 
sprang  from  rebels  that  met  the  foes  of  God  and  your  country  as 
we  do  in  Kansas.  I  am  told  spies  are  in  this  room,  as  they  were, 
advocating  peace,  at  Tabor.  They  are  your  peacemakers,  but  only 
assassins  of  the  Kansas  stripe.  We  are  far  on  our  journey,  ready 
to  die  in  an  open  field,  but  to  go  back  never,  white  or  black,  in 
charge  of  a  Buchanan  marshal  into  worse  than  slavery." 

J.  H.  Kagi  spoke,  but  not  with  the  solemnity  of  Brown,  saying, 
"  The  half  of  border  warfare  had  never  been  told.  Kansas  was  a 
fine  country  worth  a  struggle,  and  Col.  Jim  Lane  and  his  crowd 
were  ready  to  meet  in  the  right  time  twice  their  number.  Cap 
tain  Brown  would  be  hunted  as  a  wild  beast,  and  the  loss  of  his 
property,  exposure  to  hardship,  and  the  death  of  sons,  would  have 
driven  any  other  man  to  madness.  Canada  is  a  good  breathing 
place  for  men  of  color,  and,  from  my  leader  who  has  struck  terror 
on  the  border,  you  will  hear  again."  This,  no  doubt,  had  reference 
to  the  Virginia  constitution,  a  part  of  which  was  written  in  my 
house,  and  to  his  Virginia  raid  the  next  December.  Thus  we  saw 
Brown  in  public,  skilled  in  repartee  and  effective  in  narration,  with 
a  purpose. 

In  prayer,  there  was  a  supplication  for  enemies,  and  the  poor 
fighting  our  battles  on  the  border.  On  my  asking  for  details  in 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

his  experiences,  he  said,  "  I  have  an  aversion  to  talking  about  it ; 
the  deeds  were  so  horrible  and  my  brain  almost  reels  over  the  pic 
tures,  but  if  there  is  a  God —  and  there  is  —  He  will  avenge." 

The  old  prophets  were  often  quoted  on  that  Sunday,  and  great 
truths  worthy  of  the  renowned  sages  fell  from  his  lips,  which  I 
took  down  at  the  time,  and  from  memory  gave  to  the  press.  They 
are  to  be  found  in  Brown's  life  by  Eedpath. 

Captain  Brown  was  an  expert  in  the  wool-trade.  In  my  sheep 
barn  and  wool  loft  he  lingered,  saying  that  it  was  by  honest  sort 
ing  that  he  helped  the  trade,  and  by  his  independence  that  he 
became  a  poor  man.  "Grease  and  filth  will  not  make  cloth.  I 
can  with  my  eyes  closed,  tell  of  the  texture  of  a  fleece,  and  by  the 
touch  if  strong  or  weak,  if  grown  on  a  poor  or  fat  animal;  and 
honest  selling  on  merit  was  my  aim.  I  made  a  standard,  and 
shipped  to  England  a  fine  clip  just  as  the  price  went  down.  There 
is  no  discounting  my  Canada  and  English  trade  in  fleecy  locks  now, 
though  disaster  is  predicted.  Somebody,  like  many  an  inventor,  has 
'to  fail.  It  is  a  question  whether  a  dead  man  is  a  failure  when 
living  ones  climb  over  him  easier  to  scale  the  wall.  I  am  under 
the  law  of  fate  which  I  cannot  read.  I  like  a  quiet  home  and 
children,  but  there  is  no  rest  for  me.  Springfield,  madam," 
addressing  Mrs.  G.,  "  is  a  beautiful  city,  and  Doctor  Osgood  was  a 
sample  minister  above  his  profession,  and  he  would  urge  me  to 
quiet  as  you  do.  Yes  —  wife,  boys  and  all  are  full  of  fear,  but 
they  don't  know  my  mission — it  is  direct  from  God  Almighty,  and 
I  am  discharging  it." 

That  gave  me  the  first  indication  of  a  kind  of  insanity,  and  I 
appealed  to  him  to  "take  rest  or  your  losses  and  severe  sacrifice  of 
your  boys  will  drive  you  to  madness  ". 

"No  —  the  battle  is  raging,  and  I  must  fight,  much  as  I  like  a 
home,  and  play  with  children." 

J.  H.  Kagi  appeared  with  a  large  bundle  and  sat  in  my  library 
writing,  while  a  sentinel  was  near.  As  the  door  was  ajar,  I  heard 
Brown  say  that  "he  would  not  have  it — the  article  must  be 
drafted  over".  There  was  a  long  reading  and  discussion,  there 
upon  a  remark,  to  me,  "I  can  trust  you,  and  as  a  friend,  if  you 
overheard  anything,  I  pray  you  regard  it  a  profound  secret."  A 
part  of  the  draft  of  the  Virginia  constitution  I  have  no  doubt  was 
made  then,  yet  was  ignorant  of  his  emancipation  plot,  which  cost 
hjs  life. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   TEARS.  215 

The  Sunday  evening  meeting  had  been  noticed  in  the  morning, 
and  it  was  more  solemn  than  exciting.  Captain  Brown  spoke 
without  any  spirit  of  revenge,  and  like  a  statesman. 

"  Slavery  is  a  crime,  and  a  real  lover  of  his  race  and  country 
will  put  a  wall  of  fire  around  it.  Some  will  dare  to  die  yet,  as  so 
many  have  done  on  the  border.  You  have  a  college  started,  and  I 
hear  your  prayers,  and  this  spirit  will  save  the  country.  Slaverv 
cannot  endure  a  college,  or  a  prayer  that  goes  above  the  roof." 
Three  clergymen  spoke  kindly,  and  prayed  for  the  safety  of  the 
company  and  Kansas.  A  collection  was  taken,  and  an  offer  of 
food  to  take  on  the  way.  The  sentiment  was  far  from  a  unit. 
Tabor  had  deprecated  the  raid;  and,  to  save  burning  as  a  town  and 
fines,  that  would  be  a  wise  course  for  Grinnell;  but,  the  counsels 
of  age  and  a  dash  of  strong  talk  overcame  all,  leaving  the  hero  and 
company  to  shake  hands,  and  a  parting  "God  bless  you".  It  was 
an  educational  meeting  of  a  high  order,  bracing  for  a  feared  con 
flict  between  the  marshal  and  Brown's  company. 

Beaching  home  I  found  a  stage  agent  or  driver,  with  a  message. 
Here  we  have  the  hero  outside  the  church.  The  marshal,  Mr. 
Workman,  of  Iowa  City,  was  an  ex-senator,  postmaster,  and  a  per 
sonal  friend  in  securing  a  right  of  way  for  the  railroad  of  which 
I  was  a  director.  He  wrote,  "  You  can  see  that  it  will  give  your 
town  a  bad  name  to  have  a  fight  there ;  then  all  who  aid  are  liable, 
and  there  will  be  an  arrest  or  blood.  Get  the  old  Devil  away  to 
save  trouble,  for  he  will  be  taken,  dead  or  alive."  Of  course  it 
was  my  first  duty  to  tell  Brown  the  situation. 

"Yes,  I  have  heard  of  him  ever  since  I  came  to  the  state,  and 
perhaps  I  better  leave  the  house  and  take  to  the  barn,  but  I  tell 
you  all  such  soldiers  are  cowards,  and  can  be  stampeded  like  cattle. 
My  word  is,  tell  him  we  are  ready  to  be  taken,  but  will  wait  one 
day  more  for  his  military  squad."  Going  over  to  the  hotel  to  send 
the  message  by  the  stage,  a  plausable  democrat  gave  me  some 
advice,  and  said  he  might  be  enrolled  to  kill  a  nigger  thief, 
but  didn't  want  me  hurt.  At  home  I  found  the  door  ajar  to  the 
room  that  contained  the  arms.  "  There  be  six  Richmonds  in  the 
field "  —  no,  six  on  the  floor,  sleeping  on  their  arms,  grasping  a 
weapon  on  the  first  sound.  Brown  was  up  stairs  asleep,  well 
armed,  and  came  down  to  breakfast  in  good  cheer  and  talkative. 

"We  are  prepared,  and  you  see  we  cannot  be  surprised.  Raw 
recruits  shoot  too  high ;  the  body  is  a  larger  mark  than  the  head, 


216  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

and  men  wounded  in  the  bowels  or  breast  make  a  greater  panic 
than  dead  ones.  I  advise  that  we  take  the  hind  sight  of  our 
guns,  then  reserve  fire.  Don't  think  of  volunteers  among  your 
people  —  nothing  but  spies  and  thickets  trouble  me.  I  do  wish 
that  we  had  co-transportation  through  Illinois,  to  save  time  and 
perils  to  my  company.  If  I  dared  I  should  report  to  Dr.  S.  G. 
Howe  of  Boston,  or  friends ;  there  is  no  trusting  the  Post  Office 
and  I  use  a  cipher." 

Here  was  the  hero  in  the  possible  meeting  of  a  drilled  company 
—  thought  to  be  three  to  one — and  allured  by  glory  in  democratic 
service  and  thousands  of  dollars  in  reward. 

Good  as  his  word,  Brown  waited,  and  then  loaded  the  women 
and  chattels,  with  the  baggage,  into  the  canvas-covered  wagons, 
led  by  dashing  riders,  and  a  rear  guard  armed  like  moving  arse 
nals.  The  young  child  (named  after  him)  was  in  his  arms  on  the 
front  seat,  the  mother  still  ill,  and  he  lifted  his  hat,  waving  a 
cheerful  adieu,  and  the  company  passed  out  of  sight,  bound  for  the 
Quaker  settlement  in  Cedar  County.  A  lively  discussion  was  kept 
up  in  the  town,  until  the  return  news  came  that  they  were  to  be 
sent  in  a  car  as  stock,  secretly,  from  West  Liberty  to  Chicago. 
The  circumstances  were  these :  I  had  meanwhile  gone  to  Chicago, 
as  a  wool-shipper,  and  from  the  late  John  F.  Tracy,  superintend 
ent,  engaged  a  stock  car  for  the  fugitives  from  West  Liberty  to 
Chicago  at  fifty  dollars.  The  kind  of  freight  was  not  named,  and 
the  democratic  manager,  while  suspicious,  was  kept  in  ignorance. 
When  too  late  the  permission  was  withdrawn,  for  the  outfit  had 
filled  the  car,  and  Brown  was  so  fully  aware  of  the  value  of  cau 
tion  that  there  was  only  a  secret  unloading  in  Chicago.  It  Avas  in 
vain  that  I  offered  the  freight  money,  Mr.  Tracy  saying,  "  I  would 
not  accept  it  for  ten  thousand  dollars  since  we  might  be  held  for 
the  value  of  every  one  of  the  niggers."  Yet,  it  was  true  that  the 
real  owners  of  the  railway  property  were  not  averse  to  the  new 
species  of  freighting. 

Where  was  the  valiant  Marshal  Workman  ?  That  radical  of 
the  time,  William  Penn  Clark,  with  Dr.  Jesse  Brown,  were  also 
engaged  in  securing  transportation,  and  tauntingly  urged  Workman 
to  get  out  his  company,  less  valiant  the  more  they  heard  of  Brown. 
The  old  hero  had  gauged  the  slave  hunter.  Reed's  Johnson 
County  History  has  the  following: 


REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY   YEARS.  217 

"It  immediately  became  street  talk  in  Iowa  City  that  Brown,  with  a  large 
party  of  fugitive  slaves,  was  in  the  vicinity  ;  and,  as  a  reward  of  three  thousand 
dollars  had  been  offered  by  the  authorities  of  Missouri  for  the  arrest  of  the  negroes, 
the  disinterested  advocates  of  the  rigid  enforcement  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law 
began  to  discuss  the  propriety  of  collecting  a  mob  and  marching  on  Pedee  and  cap 
turing  Brown  and  his  party.  Sam  Workman,  then  postmaster  at  Iowa  City,  was 
the  captain  of  the  gang  organized  for  this  purpose,  but  Brown  having  returned  a 
reply  breathing  quiet  defiance  to  Workman's  threat  of  capturing  him,  the  postmas 
ter,  after  consulting  his  friend  Captain  Kelly,  an  Irish  gentleman  of  great  emi 
nence —  that  is  to  say,  six  feet  and  seven  inches  tall  —  deferred  the  undertaking." 

The  account  in  Sanborn's  Life  of  John  Brown  I  assume  to  be 
true.  It  is  only  the  truth  that  Grinnell  had  been  a  station  on  the 
underground  railway,  but  the  departures  had  been  in  the  night  and 
the  adventurers  not  generally  known.  Certainly  the  event  had 
found  no  local  publicity,  attended  with  cost  if  not  personal  peril. 
The  "broadbrims "  were  usually  conductors  of  a  covered  wagon. 
Now  and  then  a  daring,  safe  driver  would  have  at  his  side  a  broad, 
double-faced  bull-dog,  a  device  which  kept  curious  persons  from 
investigating  the  quality  of  the  freight.  At  an  early  day  there 
were  quiet  camping  places  for  the  day,  and  rest  for  a  resumption 
on  the  journey  at  dark. 

The  great  railroad  manager,  H.  M.  Hoxie,  now  dead,  showed 
his  early  spirit  and  aptness  when  in  the  family  of  the  founder  of 
Mitchelville,  near  Des  Moines.  "  Uncle  "  and  Hon.  Thos.  Mitchell, 
now  under  a  whitening  crown,  can  invite  the  statute  of  limitation 
as  a  bar  to  his  youthful  law  breaking,  for  he  taught  what  he 
practiced  with  the  ardor  of  a  new,  convert  and  the  efficiency  of  a 
field  marshal.  The  late  and  lamented  H.  M.  Hoxie  was  a  protege 
of  Jiis,  and  the  pleasure  and  excitement  of  "helping  on  a  darky" 
was  only  heightened,  even  after  he  became  county  clerk,  by  a 
knowledge  that  with  his  native  adroitness  he  had  got  the  pursuers 
on  the  wrong  track. 

This  is  a  sample  of  the  cipher  messages  of  the  time,  and  a  judi 
cious  device,  as  both  Mr.  Mitchell  and  I  raised  sheep.  We  were 
afraid  of  the  mails  and  the  following  letter  was  delivered  by  a 
trusted  stage  passenger: 

"Dear  Grinnell:  Uncle  Tom  says  if  the  roads  are  not  too  bad  you  can  look 
for  those  fleeces  of  wool  by  to-morrow.  Send  them  on  to  test  the  market  and  price, 
and  no  back  charges.  Yours,  Hub." 

They  came  at  night,  and  were  the  darkest,  saddest  specimens  of 


218  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEAES, 

humanity  I  have  ever  seen,  glad  to  camp  on  the  floor,  while  the  vet 
eran  was  a  night  guard  with  his  dog  and  a  miniature  arsenal,  ready 
for  use  on  alarm.  Breakfast  over,  for  obvious  reasons  they  chose 
a  refuge  in  the  barn  until  dark,  and  while  filing  out,  one  observed 
a  colored  picture  on  the  wall,  representing  the  Saviour  on  a  cross, 
and  shouted,  "Marsa,  what  they  doing  with  that  fellow  up  thar?" 
The  reply  was,  "  Crucifying  the  Saviour."  "  What's  dat  ?  "  "  Tak 
ing  His  life  —  it  is  Jesus." 

The  later  career  of  Brown,  with  the  safe  arrival  of  his  spoil 
from  the  southern  prison  house,  in  Canada,  came  to  be  well  known. 
It  is  described  in  volumes  by  Redpath  and  Webb  Sanborn,  with 
the  Virginia  invasion,  capture  at  Harper's  Ferry,  and  execution 
at  Charlestown,  Va.,  after  a  show  of  trial  in  December,  1859. 
There  is  a  personal  item  not  to  be  forgotten.  Captain  Brown 
wrote  me  of  his  safe  arrival  among  the  Quakers  and  in  Chicago,  to 
which  I  replied  with  good  wishes. 

From  Springdale,  the  following  letter  was  written,  as  appears 
in  Sanborn's  life  of  the  hero,  headed,  "  Reception  at  Grinnell,  Iowa, 
compared  with  Tabor  "  : 

1.  Whole  party  and  teams  kept  for  two  days  free  of  cost. 

2.  Sundry  articles  of  clothing  given  to  the  captives. 

3.  Bread,  meat,  cakes,  pies,  etc.,  prepared  for  our  journey. 

4.  Full  houses  for  two  nights  in  succession,  at  which  meetings  Brown  and 
Kagi  spoke,  and  were  loudly  cheered  and  fully  endorsed.    Three  Congregational 
clergymen  attended  the  meeting  on  Sabbath  evening  (notice  of  which  was  given 
from  the  pulpit).    All  of  them  took  part  in  justifying  our  course  and  in  urging  con 
tributions  in  our  behalf.     There  was  no  dissenting  speaker  at  either  meeting.     Mr. 
Grinnell  spoke  at  length  and  has  since  labored  to  procure  us  a  free  and  safe  con 
veyance  to  Chicago,  and  effected  it.     Contributions  in  cash  amounting  to  $26.50. 
Last  but  not  least,  public  thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God  offered  up  by  Mr.  Grin 
nell  in  behalf  of  the  whole  company  for  His  great  mercy  and  protecting  care,  with 
prayers  for  a  continuance  of  these  blessings,  etc. 

Our  reception  among  the  Quakers  here  has  been  most  cordial.    Yours  truly, 

JOHN  BROWN. 

On  his  capture  a  hundred  letters  or  more  were  found  in  his 
possession,  mine  with  others,  supposed  to  indicate  a  political  con 
spiracy,  and  punishable  by  fine  and  imprisonment.  Senator  J.  M. 
Mason  of  Virginia,  author  of  the  fugitive  slave  law,  at  the  earli 
est  moment  introduced  a  resolution  to  investigate  with  large 
powers.  The  Satanic  press  gloated  over  the  character  of  the  cul 
prits,  prejudged,  and  northern  timid  partisans  were  nervous,  even 
malignant  in  spirit. 


REMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY   YEARS.  219 

Senator  James  W.  Grimes  from  Iowa,  by  letter  advised  me  at 
once  that  I  should  get  out  of  the  way  or  have  the  company  of  a 
marshal  to  Washington.  It  would  not  be  just  to  name  friends 
who  advised  a  visit  and  stay  in  Canada  until  the  storm  was  over, 
or  to  mention  the  fears  of  those  who  held  that  the  party  would 
suffer  by  my  radicalism,  for  I  was  then  a  state  senator.  There 
was  no  time  for  delay,  and,  secretly  to  my  nearest  friends,  I  left 
for  Washington,  to  answer,  passing  the  United  States  marshal, 
with  his  requisition,  as  I  learned,  at  Pittsburg.  I  called  on  Sena 
tor  Grimes  first,  and  by  his  advice  reported  to  Senator  Mason. 

"Where  is  the  officer?"  Said  the  pompous  senator,  "I  can 
not  say  when  you  will  be  wanted.  Can  you  give  a  bond  to 
appear  ?  " 

"No,  sir;  but  I  am  here  ready  to  answer,  and  have  escaped 
the  company  of  an  officer  to  meet  a  scowl.'7 

I  wrote  a  note  to  my  senator,  urging  that  I  had  staid  long 
enough,  after  a  week,  but  should  not  leave  secretly,  and  asked  for 
my  rights  and  an  early  examination. 

The  witnesses  called,  and  escapes  of  the  suspected,  is  a  part  of 
the  great  sensational  drama,  and  I  retired  only  after  a  long  delay 
and  a  threat  by  Senator  Grimes  to  bring  my  case  up  before  the 
senate,  if  not  early  heard  or  discharged.  Mason,  by  his  clerk,  said 
I  was  too  willing  a  witness,  and  could  go,  but  I  could  have  no  let 
ters  of  my  own  writing,  and  there  were  no  fees,  and  pride  as  to  my 
company  would  lose  my  railroad  fare. 

Recounting  all  relating  to  the  Brown  tragedy,  nothing  is  so 
strange  as  the  revulsion  of  public  sentiment  in  the  conviction  that 
the  hero  of  the  century  appeared  as  the  mighty  agent  in  awaken 
ing  public  sentiment  to  the  enormities  of  that  system  for  which  a 
man  "dared  to  die".  Mistakes  are  easily  named  after  the  battle  is 
lost.  The  place  was  unfortunate,  and  there  was  vain  trust  in  the 
spirit  of  the  slave,  afraid  to  strike  for  his  liberty.  But  the  valor 
of  the  man  and  cowardice  of  oppressors  made  it  true  that  they  exe 
cuted  a  hero  not  for  a  crime  but  for  the  exposure  of  cowardice. 

I  long  since  put  in  the  flames  letters  of  commiseration  and 
excerpts  from  the  warnings  against  my  delusion.  Now  I  can 
name  Seward,  who  placed  the  martyr's  picture  beside  heroes,  to 
remind  of  duty  and  God.  Brown's  life  becomes  majestic  by  the 
highest  standard ;  more  pathetic  than  romance,  stranger  than  his 
tory,  than  all  legendary  tales;  a  compeer  of  lion  hearts  who  have 


220  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

honored  a  scaffold.  He  is  immortalized,  the  soul  marching  on 
with  the  legion  of  soldiers,  inspiring  them  in  the  camp,  on  the 
march  and  in  assault.  "His  soul  is  marching  on." 


HORACE     GREELEY. 

Horace  Greeley  was  the  unquestioned  great  journalist  of  the 
century.  T  knew  him  forty  years  ago,  ever  the  object  of  curiosity 
in  public  assemblies  —  the  prolific  subject  of  caricature  by  the  nov 
ice  and  the  sordid  political  hireling.  In  his  latter  days  his  form 
was  bent,  and,  with  a  wabbling  gait,  flowing  flaxen  locks,  old  white 
coat,  banged  hat,  neck-tie  awry,  he  was  a  distant  remove  from  that 
semblance  of  a  tailor-made  man  —  Carlyle's  clothes  dummy ;  but 
the  touch  of  that  soft,  delicate  hand  and  the  parian-white,  comely, 
massive  head,  the  very  impersonation  of  beauty  and  power,  was 
never  jeered  save  by  shallow  sacrilegious  scribblers,  too  obtuse  to 
see  set  on  that  brow  "  the  seal  of  a  god  ". 

It  is  well  known  that  Mr.  Greeley  avowed  in  public,  in  private 
by  letter,  and  speech,  that  he  had  wasted  breath  and  entreaty  on 
thousands  to  gain  free  air  and  independence  out  of  the  city,  and 
that  I,  as  before  narrated,  was  the  young  man  who  heeded  "Go 
West,  young  man  !  Go  West ! " 

From  the  city  of  Grinnell,  in  1871,  he  wrote  a  letter  quite  too 
profuse  in  praise,  yet  a  picture  of  the  seat  of  Iowa  College,  an  insti 
tution  of  five  hundred  students,  and  of  the  beauty  of  the  place,  to 
which,  without  reservation,  I  subscribe.  I  could  make  only  a  fee 
ble  return  to  his  compliments  by  a  dinner  party  in  his  honor  at  St. 
Nicholas  Hotel  in  New  York.  I  indulge  here  in  personal  reminis 
cences  which  have  the  merit  of  freshness  rather  than  of  worn 
stories  or  doubtful  legends. 

His  fidelity  as  a  historian  of  the  war  is  proven  by  an  incident. 
There  was  a  wide  and  Avarm  discussion  as  to  the  positions  and 
behavior  of  a  certain  general  in  battle,  and  the  issue.  To  gain  the 
truth  apart  from  officer  and  romancer,  he  wished  to  hear  the  story 
of  a  private  regular  soldier  on  duty,  then  miles  away  from  Wash 
ington.  He  asked  me  to  accompany  him,  he  being  in  disguise, 
with  a  pretext  to  call  out  the  soldier,  and  guage  the  witness  in  the 
honesty  of  a  simple,  social  narrative.  To  military  men  it  was  a 
secret,  but  all  related  to  his  history  of  the  actors,  the  issue  and 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  221 

strategy  of  war.  He  gained  what  he  desired,  only  by  a  cold, 
muddy  ride  of  six  miles. 

Mr.  Greeley  was  too  thoughtful  for  idle  questions,  yet  would 
occasionally  unbend.  Once  I  said  to  him,  "  There  is  a  plot  to  get 
your  white  coat  as  a  joke."  "I  know  it,"  he  said,  "the  sneaks 
have  been  on  my  track  for  years,  but  money  wouldn't  buy  it,  and 
I  should  never  hear  the  last  of  it  if  stolen."  During  his  stay  in 
Iowa,  while  awake,  the  coat  was  never  out  of  sight,  and  at  night 
was  by  his  pillow,  though  he  could  not  have  suspected  us  as  in  the 
conspiracy.  He  had  explained  his  attachment  to  old  things — hat, 
shoes,  that  were  suited  to  him,  and  like  old  friends  not  to  be 
parted  with. 

The  overland  stage  ride  to  California  evinced  his  courage,  as 
well  as  invited  hardships,  to  give  the  public  the  best  views  of  the 
new  El  Dorado.  Blessings  did  brighten  on  the  frontier  as  they 
took  their  flight,  and  while  stories  of  the  journey  became  lame  in 
traveling,  yet  many  of  them  were  authentic.  "How  was  it  about 
that  perilous  ride  with  the  driver  ?  "  "  That's  true  —  I  never  could 
express  my  fright ;  and  my  comrades,  passengers,  were,  in  the  lan 
guage  of  the  Irishman,  'past  shpaking'." 

It  was  the  most  courageous  adventure  of  a  great  editor,  mock 
ing  the  dangers  incident  to  stage  robbery,  uncomplaining,  con 
fronted  with  hardships,  awake  while  others  slept,  writing — his 
knees  or  a  cracker  box  for  a  table  —  while  companions  cracked 
jokes,  drawing  on  their  bottles  for  exhilaration.  They  were  dole 
ful  in  laments  for  a  people  doomed  to  live  in  such  a  country,  and  in 
doubt  of  the  wisdom  of  a  Ruler  who  tolerated  such  wastes,  depre 
ciating  the  might  of  a  World-maker.  Mr.  Greeley  saw  in  future 
years  the  water  locked  in  reservoirs,  the  lands  irrigated,  gold  mined 
by  new  processes,  and  homes  of  comfort  and  content  by  the 
mountain. 

"Across  the  Continent."  This  volume  of  travels  is  the  lumi 
nous  track  made  by  the  pen  of  an  unarmed  crusader.  The  notes 
were  made  not  for  revision,  and  to  be  graced  by  wit  and  rhetoric, 
but  thrown  off  warm  for  a  hungry  people,  readers  of  the  New  York 
Tribune,  scientists,  political  economists  and  philosophers.  It  was 
a  new  page  of  facts,  an  unvarnished  tale,  then  read  as  romance, 
now  read  by  later  travelers  on  a  Pullman  car,  as  the  forecast  of  a 
keen  observer,  the  vision  of^  an  ardent  American.  He  wrote  more 
truth  than  all  before  him  saw,  and  gave  the  headland  pictures  for 


222  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

imitators  who  came  after  him,  not  blurred  by  change  or  time. 
John  Brown,  and  his  battles,  the  Kansas  border  war,  politicians  in 
conventions,  the  argument  for  the  Pacific  Railway,  and  the  route, 
Indians,  Brigham  Young  and  Mormons,  mining  in  Nevada  and  Cal 
ifornia,  the  people  in  character  and  aspiration,  the  Golden  Gate 
and  white-winged  commerce — all  these  were  taken  in  by  his  pene 
trating  and  comprehensive  eye. 

I  give  only  samples,  laconic  records  of  pioneer,  border  simplic 
ity  in  1859  : 

"  May  12th.  Chicago.  Chocolate  and  morning  newspapers  last 
seen  at  breakfast. 

23d.  Leavenworth.  Room  bells  and  baths  make  their  final 
appearance. 

24th.  Topeka.  Beefsteak  and  wash-bowls  (other  than  tin), 
last  visible.  Barber  ditto. 

26th.  Manhattan.  Potatoes  and  eggs  last  recognized.  Chairs 
ditto. 

27th.  Junction  City.  Last  visitation  of  boot-black,  with  dis 
solving  views  of  board  bedroom.  Bedsteads  a  good-by. 

28th.  Pipe  Creek.  Benches  at  meals  disappearing,  giving 
place  to  bags  and  boxes — we  write  on  laps  by  turns,  and  on  express 
baggage,  which  supplies  us  with  lodgings  at  night. 

As  to  the  Indians  Mr.  Gree^ey  in  private  as  well  as  by  pen 
laughed  at  the  romances  of  the  Indians,  holding  that  they  were  all 
children  —  they  made  no  progress,  were  feared  and  hated,  wasting 
in  huts,  on  the  limits  of  human  existence.  Pontiac  and  Tecumseh 
were  no  doubt  noble  fellows,  but  the  race  has  disappeared. 

"Well,  about  the  whiskey  and  water  at  the  station?"  "Yes, 
yes,  I  remembered  it — we  drank  together  —  he  took  the  whiskey 
and  I  took  the  water.  The  scribblers  are  anxious  to  get  a  fresh 
goose  to  pluck ;  that  is  a  part  of  the  trade,  and  I  have  compassion 
ated  many  a  poor  devil  in  my  leisure  as  a  news-hunter." 

His  characteristic  stories  are  without  number;  I  give  one  — 
that  of  a  hand-car  ride. 

"  I  had  to  reach  an  Indiana  appointment  for  a  lecture,  but  the 
locomotive  failed  us.  I  told  my  introductory  story  with  an  apol 
ogy  for  my  delay,  which  brought  out  the  only  laugh  heard  from 
that  audience.  I  placed  the  hand-car  boys  under  good  pay,  yet, 
getting  weary  and  myself  chilled  on  the  car,  proposed  to  help.  I 
took  off  my  hat,  and,  with  hair  streaming,  coat-skirts  in  the  Avind; 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY  YEARS.  223 

I  did  duty,  reminded  of  the  monotony  of  turning  the  grindstone 
when  a  boy,  before  breakfast.  Soon  my  hands  began  to  burn,  with 
blisters  swelling  my  fingers — they  were  painful,  and  all  occa 
sioned  by  forgetting  to  let  the  handle  turn  freely.  The  audience 
was  good  natured,  but  I  was  weary  and  crippled,  and  hinted  that  I 
might  want  a  small  boy  to  turn  the  leaves ;  but,  in  the  humor  of 
narration,  pictured  myself  and  the  painful  outcome.  i  Friends,'  I 
said,  '  I  will  now  proceed  with  a  single  reflection  suggested  by  a 
lame  back,  palsied  fingers  and  general  debility.  As  for  hand-car 
rolling,  whatever  may  be  said  of  it  as  an  exercise,  I  don't  conscien 
tiously  recommend  it  for  an  amusement.'  This,  I  judge,  they  took 
for  a  clever  jest  by  the  cheers  it  brought  out,  for  they  were  the 
first  and  last  of  the  evening." 

One  day  he  said,  "I  know  I  am  no  orator,  and  why  do  they 
keep  me  on  the  go  ? "  My  answer  was,  "  It  is  your  fame  as  an 
editor,  and  a  tone  with  accent  far  more  novel  than  entertaining. 
Now  there's  your  lecture  on  poetry — long,  deep,  and  that  high 
key  and  round  'powetry'  falls  into  the  ludicrous."  "If  that 
makes  a  laugh  I'll  burn  the  thing." 

Farmers'  and  State  Fair  Meetings  were  his  delight,  and  these 
are  incidents  connected  with  his  speech  at  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  in 
1871.  Mr.  J.  S.  Clarkson,  editor  of  the  State  Register,  late  assist 
ant  postmaster-general,  called  upon  him  in  my  company  for  his 
address  in  full,  or  the  heads.  Mr.'-Greeley  answered,  "I  like  your 
enterprise,  but  I  don't  know  a  word  I  am  to  say — I  hope  your 
reporter  may  learu  that  I  talked  about  deep  plowing — I  must  have 
one  hour  for  sleep,  and  then  one  for  dinner  and  to  get  ready."  He 
took  a  small  sheet  of  paper  and  cut  it  into  twenty  or  more  slips, 
marked  1,  2,  etc.  and  with  each  number  a  word  or  a  sentence  to 
guide  his  thoughts ;  as  fast  as  used  it  was  his  habit  to  lay  them 
down  in  their  order.  He  spoke  from  a  new  wagon,  to  a  great 
crowd,  saying  to  me,  before  speaking,  "  As  I  am  very  stupid,  if  I 
drop  a  stich,  when  I  bend  my  head  for  a  taste  of  water  you  hint  a 
word  if  you  think  the  case  requires  it." 

Near  the  close,  in  this  office  of  mentor  I  said,  "trees,"  and  there 
was  a  brilliant  passage ;  later,  "  farmers'  education,"  and  he 
branched  out  to  say,  "  Lands  held  by  ignorant  owners  were  worth 
no  more  by  the  acre  than  lands  in  Sodom."  The  "  city  "  was  men 
tioned,  and  response  came,  "Des  Moines  has  a  great  future,  but 
you  are  proud  enough  now  without  my  flattery."  The  speech  was 


224  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

a  great  success,  and  confirms  his  fame  for  versatility  and  the  poise 
of  a  great  educator. 

His  was  a  warm  heart,  decrying  capital  punishment  as  a  cruel 
barbarism.  Yet  he  would,  without  the  least  compunction,  by  the 
merciless  strictures  of  his  pen,  inflict  greater  pain  than  caused  by 
a  gibbet.  Shams,  the  idle,  dissipated  society,  felt  his  keen  lance, 
yet  unfortunates,  like  young  Vanderbilt,  personally  without  money 
or  credit,  could  gain  thousands  by  Mr.  Greeley's  indorsement,  a 
sample  in  a  long  role  of  dependents  living  on  a  good  nature  which 
rendered  him  poor,  while  he  might  honestly  have  been  nearly  a 
millionaire.  There  was,  too,  a  sample  of  his  paradoxical  nature, 
when,  doubting  orthodox  punishment  in  the  hereafter,  he  would 
with  towering  indignation  consign  villanies  and  villains  to  the 
penal  abode  of  hell  in  the  "old  version". 

Mr.  Greeley  was  in  certain  moods  a  fine  talker,  with  positive 
convictions  as  to  men.  Speaking  of  early  men,  and  newspaper 
writers,  he  said :  "  On  the  New  Yorker,  merged  in  the  Log  Cabin  of 
1840,  I  did  my  best  and  most  satisfactory  campaign  service.  I 
detested  mere  partisanship,  and  strove  to  elevate  the  masses,  and 
strike  at  pretenders  ready  to  sell  or  bow  to  the  South  on  smooth 
promises  and  half  pay.  You  cannot  make  a  good  bargain  with 
Tammany  cohorts  and  southern  allies.  Union  meant  slavery 
sacred.  I  never  want  to  engage  in  the  pack-horse  business  to  take 
along  luggage,  better  to  be  dumped  in  the  sea  or  burned." 

On  another  occasion,  there  was  a  gathering  of  friends  on  return 
from  a  Texas  visit.  On  the  next  morning  we  met.  Said  Mr.  Gree 
ley,  "Did  you  look  in  the  eye  my  best  friend  who  called  the 
guests  ?  "  "  Yes,  a  fine,  genial  man  you  mentioned  often  as  Chaun- 
cey."  "Well,  keep  track  of  him.  He,  as  the  tailors  say  of  the 
cloak,  has  the  making  of  a  good  coat.  You  will  hear  from  him  as 
rich  in  wit,  a  scarce  article,  and  the  rising  orator  of  the  day.  It  is 
safe  to  say  what  Chauncey  M.  Depew  ought  to  be  in  the  nation." 

A    PRESIDENTIAL    CANDIDATE    IN    1872. 

It  has  often  been  said,  but  not  with  truth,  that  he  sought  the 
liberal  nomination.  From  his  letter  to  me,  a  delegate  at  Cincin 
nati,  I  extract : 

"  Leave  my  name  out  of  the  question  as  a  candidate.  We  ought 
to  unite  on  Judge  Davis  of  Illinois  —  the  old  friend  of  Mr.  Lin- 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  225 

coin.  Of  Grant  say,  his  nepotism  is  a  scandal  —  surroundings  any 
thing  but  fragrant.  Now  is  the  time  to  strike  for  the  one-term 
principle  —  give  full  credit,  as  I  do,  to  our  military  president,  when 
preferring  a  civilian  for  a  change.  Write  full  news  as  to  friends  — 
your  letter  cheers  me." 

At  his  office,  in  company  with  Ex-G-overnor  Fenton,  the  follow 
ing  conversation  was  had :  "  I  read  that  account  of  the  state  polit 
ical  fusion  of  Des  Moines,  and  the  funeral  services  on  the  burial  of 
the  old  democratic  party.  Mr.  Irish  (Hon.  John  P.  Irish,  now  of 
California)  was  really  eloquent  for  a  Bourbon,  but  I  doubt  if  the 
' remains7  will  allow  the  grave  to  sod  over,  even  with  extra  atten 
tion  of  a  sexton  at  the  genteel  burial."  This  was  in  anticipation 
of  a  revolt,  and  a  clear  political  forecast  of  the  Bourbons  who  lay 
in  wait  to  compass  his  defeat.  It  was  at  his  desk  in  the  heat  of 
the  convass,  when  a  score  of  political  letters  were  passed  over  to 
me  as  curiosities,  indicating  the  spirit  of  the  campaign.  Mr.  Gree- 
ley  commented : 

"The  theoretical  free  trader  wants  me  to  modify  on  the  tariff 
to  help  our  cause — then  a  distiller  thinks  a  few  soft  words  would 
take  out  the  sting  and  hold  the  democrats.  It  would  be  policy  for 
the  South  to  mildly  discount  the  abuse  of  Jeff  Davis.  There  is  no 
end  to  the  slurs  from  the  North  on  account  of  my  going  on  the 
Davis  bond — if  I  did  help  get  a  big  elephant  off  our  hands.  He 
had  a  right  to  a  trial  after  a  long  imprisonment,  if  not  to  be  hung, 
and  was  fast  sizing  up  to  be  a  martyr.  Any  man  but  an  obtuse 
demagogue  would  have  seen  it.  These  hints  and  advice  I  burned 
unanswered.  What  do  they  take  me  for  ?  The  penalty  of  a  nom 
ination  is  silence,  and  diluted  opinions  I  shall  not  put  on  the 
market,  for  I  haven't  any  for  the  occasion.  It  is  out  of  the  ques 
tion  to  rise  above  the  dignity  of  a  jumping-jack."  Turning  to  Gov 
ernor  Fenton,  he  said :  "  Can  you  suggest  any  creature  in  my  place 
for  vicarious  suffering  ?  I  am  in  a  straight-jacket,  but  if  it  were 
you,  you  could  have  worn  it  without  exposing  political  foibles,  as  a 
pleasant  irritation.  The  machine  is  under  full  steam,  and  there  is 
a  money  scare  which  will  array  the  timid  and  sneaks  against  us ; 
but  I  am  going  among  the  people  for  country  air  and  to  speak." 
He  did  go. 

The  political  addresses  by  Mr.  Greeley,  in  number,  vigor  and 
depth,  were  an  astonishment  to  the  crowds  who  listened.  In 
Indiana  especially,  the  home  of  great  stumpers  and  politicians, 


226  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

there  was  nothing  worthy  of  comparison  intellectually  to  the  phi 
losopher  candidate.  The  canvass  was  then  bringing  on  insomnia 
and  nervous  debility,  prompting  the  remark  that  "  if  I  should  be 
elected  president  I  could  never  serve  ".  He  was  conscious  that  he 
was  making  the  last  draft  on  a  colossal,  weary  brain.  He  was 
adjuring  his  country  to  lay  party  on  the  altar  of  fraternity,  to 
insure  peace,  the  end  of  sectional  strife,  and  national  oneness ;  and 
truly  his  words  were  like  the  song  of  the  dying  swan,  singing 
sweetest  in  the  death-notes.  It  was  too  late  for  arguments. 
Venality  had  a  price ;  senility,  a  refuge ;  youth,  a  yearning  for  a 
victory  shout.  The  bright  stars  which  shone  over  the  liberal  party 
in  August  were  obscured  by  the  dark,  ominous  clouds  of  October; 
and  a  caricatured,  maligned  servant  of  his  party,  for  thirty  years, 
plainly  read  defeat  at  the  watching  by  the  bedside  of  a  sick  wife 
and  with  the  added  premonition  that  he  was  soon  to  follow  her. 

THE    END. 

I  never  indulged  in  severe  denunciation  of  General  Grant,  but 
expressed  my  opinion  that  we  had  use  for  a  civilian,  and  that  the 
general's  fame  would  be  more  assured  by  one  term  than  by  two. 
Thus  it  was  not  defeat  as  a  partisan,  but  sorrow  for  Mr.  Greeley  in 
his  domestic  grief,  and  his  defeat,  that  made  me  a  caller  on  him 
before  a  full  return  of  the  presidential  canvass.  The  public  had 
faint  hints  as  to  his  health,  and  it  was  only  as  a  personal  favor  that 
I  was  admitted  to  the  editorial  rooms  of  the  Tribune,  to  witness 
the  culmination  and  close  of  the  sad  visits  for  twenty-five  years. 

Mr.  Whitelaw  Reed,  managing  editor  and  ever  a  gentleman,  was 
cordial,  and  we  held  conversation  unnoticed  by  Mr.  Greeley,  who 
was  writing.  To  engage  his  attention  Mr.  Eeed  said,  "  Mr.  Grin- 
nell  of  Iowa  calls  to  see  you."  The  pen  was  dropped,  and  I 
entreated  him  not  to  rise,  being  shocked  by  his  limp,  bony  hand, 
sunken  eye  and  wan  expression.  The  voice  was  off  key,  tremu 
lous  and  low,  and  I  ventured  to  express  admiration  for  his  speeches 
in  the  canvass,  and  hoped  that  he  would  soon  find  rest.  Oh,  the 
despairing  look!  "Xo  —  all  is  gone!  I  am  worn  out  watching 
by  my  sick  wife!  It's  all  lost  —  nothing  left — a  rout — friends 
stranded  who  have  done  everything — and  nothing  left  but  honor, 
in  the  wreck  where  I  go  down."  He  took  up  his  pen  tremulously 
to  finish  an  article  he  was  writing,  when  soon  there  was  a  call  and 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  227 

notice  that  the  carriage  was  waiting ;  then,  with  a  wild  stare,  he 
said,  "  I  will  go ! "  casting  with  a  sigh  the  last  glance  upon  his 
desk.  I  accompanied  him  down  the  stairs  through  the  office,  where 
in  the  countenance  of  the  employees  you  read  sorrowful  apprehen 
sion;  and  the  remark  was  confirmed,  "This  is  our  last  look  on  Mr. 
Greeley  alive."  Unknown  to  him,  by  a  pretext,  he  was  taken  to  a 
private  medical  retreat  which  he  never  left ;  and  thus  I  saw  him 
write  his  last  editorial  lines,  and  this  was  a  sad  farewell. 

That  his  death  was  by  political  disappointment  is  only  a  cruel 
suggestion,  repelled  by  every  intimate  friend  of  the  great  journal 
ist.  His  work  was  done.  Long  and  severe  tension  weakens  the 
toughest  metals  —  mental  strain  and  anguish  heated  a  brain  in  a 
fiery  alembic,  "loosing  the  silver  cord."  Not  by  political  assas 
sins,  but  by  excessive  toil,  the  brain  was  softened  —  clouded,  to  be 
emancipated  for  a  higher  realm.  A  great  heart,  strong  and  warm 
in  pulsation  for  sixty-one  years,  ceased  to  beat. 

HENRY    WARD    BEECHER. 

Mr.  J.  B.  Pond,  for  many  years  Mr.  Beecher's  agent  and  travel 
ing  companion,  said  that  my  house  in  Grinnell,  where  he  staid, 
was  the  only  house  where  he  became  a  guest  during  all  his  years  of 
journeying  while  lecturing.  This  fact,  with  the  civilities  and  com 
pliments  exchanged  in  correspondence,  give  occasion  for  the  follow 
ing  biographical  incidents.  They  become  a  key  to  open  to  me  a 
unique  chapter  in  the  phases  of  personal  life  for  more  than  forty 
years.  They  will  furnish  more  than  mere  incidents  to  that  full 
biography  which  yet  remains  to  be  written.  No  statesman,  presi 
dent  or  general,  has  been  so  often  mentioned  by  his  countrymen 
for  the  last  forty  years,  and  with  a  distinction  for  which  there 
were  obvious  reasons.  He  held  the  office  of  an  educator,  conspicu 
ous  to  the  public  gaze,  and  no  subject  was  omitted  cognate  to 
American  life.  The  very  hill-tops  and  mountains  of  thought  were 
climbed  by  him,  far  above  the  quiet  beaten  pa»ths  of  .the  serene 
valleys.  He  was  a  pioneer  in  service  in  every,  sphere  where  bold 
ness  summoned  and  a  genius  like  his  was  attracted.  Indifferent  to 
personal  reward,  he  was  fearless  in  the  forum  of  his  choice. 

Do  I  hear  the  cavil  on  the  mention  of  his  fame :  "  He  left  no 
system  of  theology,  though  a  divine  ? "  Granted.  He  removed 
cobwebs  and  dust  from  the  volumes  of  the  old,  stimulating  inde- 


228  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

pendent  thought  and  warming  the  cold  and  repulsive,  while  leav 
ing  truth  in  a  new  dress.  From  nature's  armory  he  drew  weapons, 
useless  with  the  rust  of  neglect.  This  was  an  estimate  of  my 
friend  on  hearing  the  sad  news  of  his  illness  : 

"  If  he  is  dead,  he  has  passed  away  according  to  his  often- 
expressed  wish,  that  he  f  might  not  tarry  on  the  shore  between  the 
living  and  the  dead7.  Here  in  Grinnell  he  has  often  spoken  — 
three  times  my  guest  and  myself  much  oftener  his  during  the  last 
forty  years.  For  Mr.  Beecher  there  will  be  to-day  thousands  of 
tributes  from  all  over  the  civilized  world.  Those  only  will  give 
the  full  measure  of  a  great  career  that  do  not  magnify  the  blunders 
of  a  bold  genius  and  thinker,  the  frailties  of  a  humanitarian,  yet 
innocent  of  the  vices  with  which  jealousy,  craft,  and  the  unchari 
table  without  investigation,  have  associated  his  name.  Since  the 
Tilton  and  Moulton  conspiracy  ten  years  ago,  he  has  achieved 
more  than  any  one  of  the  '  suspicious  brothers ' ;  he  has  held  as  by 
hooks  of  steel  the  brave,  great  friends  of  forty  years,  and  the  sec 
ond  largest  congregation  in  the  United  States,  in  a  missionary 
location  far  from  the  abodes  of  fashion. 

"He  will  live  as  one  of  the  boldest,  most  genial  and  great 
hearted  of  men.  Liberal  with  a  reason,  fraternal  in  practice,  fear 
less  in  the  use  of  language,  with  a  child's  simplicity  and  a  giant's 
strength.  All  the  flowers  that  bloom  and  the  trees  that  wave  he 
could  call  by  name.  In  his  brain  were  the  world's  battlefields,  and 
for  all  the  great  captains  he  had  a  biography.  No  one  but  him 
abashed  a  foreign  rebel  mob.  His  lectures  to  young  men,  written 
at  thirty,  have  never  been  equaled.  Speaker  for  all  classes,  and 
preacher,  his  printed  words  would  fill  one  hundred  volumes  — 
twice  the  product  of  any  American  clergyman,  with  only  a  rare 
repetition  of  incident  or  figure,  at  once  fresh,  warm,  poetic,  emo 
tional  and  grand,  all  free  from  pedantry,  simulation  and  cant. 
Who  held  a  warmer  place  in  the  hearts  of  the  million?  Who 
more  endeared,  or  with  a  higher  claim  to  the  generous  judgment  of 
mankind  ?  " 

He  had  a  memory  for  generalization  which  was  a  most  remark 
able  accomplishment,  yet  to  quote  poetry  or  philosophy  with  verbal 
correctness,  or  to  give  exact  dates,  was  quite  out  of  the  question; 
but  a  story  once  known  the  spirit  was  forever  his.  I  give  this  inci 
dent  in  proof  that  he  was  one  of  the  widest  readers  of  men,  with 
all  the  aptitudes  of  a  philosophic  historian: 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  229 

Over  thirty  years  ago  I  was  present  at  his  house  when  a  mili 
tary  committee  of  the  soldiers  of  1812  called  on  him  to  make  the 
annual  oration  in  Broadway  Tabernacle.  He  said :  "  I  am  busy. 
Give  me  a  few  days  to  decide."  "  Ah,  but  the  meeting  is  to-night." 
To  which  Mr.  Beecher  replied:  "You  wish  me  to  speak  to  thous 
ands  of  people  on  three  hours'  notice.  Do  you  take  me  for  a  race 
horse,  to  go  at  the  tap  of  a  drum,  or  a  hand  organ,  to  bring  forth  a 
tune  upon  winding?  But  I  see  you  are  in  a  lurch,  tell  me  all 
about  it  ? "  Amidst  the  blushes  it  was  made  known  that  General 
Dix,  the  orator,  was  sick,  and  his  military  substitute  was  at  sea. 
"And  now,"  said  Mr.  Beecher,  "you  wish  to  decoy  a  peacemaker 
into  showing  his  ignorance,  and  to  applaud  a  war  which  honest 
diplomacy  would  have  avoided ;  but  if  you  will  take  the  risk,  I  will 
come."  At  which  the  grateful  generals  departed. 

I  then  remarked,  "Mr.  Beecher,  I  fear  you  cannot  afford  the 
effort;  time  is  short,  this  is  not  in  your  line  of  thought,  and  a 
mighty  crowd  of  the  cultured  military  circles  will  be  present." 
"Yes,  yes,  I  know,  and  mother  (Mrs.  Beecher)  frowns  at  my  ven 
ture.  Let  us  go  to  dinner  and  talk  it  over,  while  I  draw  from 
your  deep  wells  and  see  if  I  come  up  with  empty  buckets."  The 
sequel  confirmed  what  the  orator  said.  "The  map  recalls  every 
battle  by  land  or  by  sea,  the  generals  and  admirals,  the  actors, 
their  prowess,  their  failures  and  their  part  in  our  politics  since. 
You  corner  me  on  a  date,  I  see,  but  not  on  a  man." 

I  was  an  auditor  that  night  at  the  Tabernacle,  and  such  mirth 
and  cheers !  He  spoke  of  war  as  a  method ;  the  actors  ?  General 
Cass  breaking  his  sword ;  the  tars  on  Lake  Erie ;  Jackson  behind 
a  cotton  bale  at  New  Orleans ;  and  all  with  compliments  that  made 
"the  braves"  both  blush  and  be  astonished  at  their  own  valor. 
The  Morning  Press  with  columns  of  reports,  said,  "It  was  the 
most  learned,  witty  and  apt  oration  of  the  century  on  warriors  at 
peace." 

The  dinner  of  the  New  England  Society  of  New  York  has  for 
a  half  century  been  held  as  the  grand  oratorical  feast  of  the  nation. 
An  after  dinner  speech  few  orators  are  equal  to,  but  there  the  great 
preacher  shone.  Wit  flowed  like  water  babbling  from  a  mountain 
spring.  It  was  spontaneity.  General  Sherman  exclaimed,  "There 
is  punishment  again  after  Beecher."  I  don't  think  it  was  any  bet 
ter  to  go  before  him.  Two  of  the  presidents  remarked  to  me  "  that 
out  of  the  hundreds  of  speakers  Beecher  alone  more  than  met 


230  REMINISCENCES  OF  FOETT  YEAES. 

expectation "  —  not  in  the  line  of  General  Porter  and  Depew,  the 
princes  of  table  orators,  whose  real  and  convulsive  wit  is  efferves 
cent,  but  in  deep  currents,  beautiful  nights  and  mirthful  incidents, 
given  with  a  pure  Saxon  in  pleasing  cadence  that  for  many  years 
made  his  absence  from  the  dinner  like  the  play  of  Hamlet  with 
Hamlet  left  out.  On  one  great  occasion  at  the  conclusion  of  a  fine 
speech,  when  complimented,  he  said,  "I  had  all  the  advantage  of 
a  surprise."  On  his  first  visit  to  New  York,  he  came  to  make  one 
platform  speech,  but  made  many  with  astonishing  climax,  and 
when  called  upon  by  a  thousand  voices  to  "Go  on,"  "Go  on,"  he 
paused  to  say,  "You  would  with  your  force-pumps  make  even  your 
Hudson  dry  at  a  low  stage  of  boating." 

After  the  great  church  council,  before  the  conspiracy  was 
unmasked,  the  largest  ever  convened  on  this  continent,  I  said 
to  Mr.  Beecher:  "Do  you  know  what  had  more  to  do  than  all 
speeches  or  witnesses  or  records  with  the  unanimous  vote?  It 
was  your  Sunday  morning  sermon,  'Under  God'.  That  ended 
doubts  and  ripened  friendships  in  a  dark  hour." 

"  I  moulded  it  in  an  hour  after  breakfast."  Later,  being  asked 
why  he  did  not  rest,  as  he  was  now  past  seventy,  he  said :  "  To 
keep  still  would  be  death.  The  reviled  Jew,  with  the  only  real 
pedigree,  has  a  claim  on  me.  Also  Catholics  —  I  am  not  one,  but 
the  thoughts  and  heroism  of  their  saints  make  me  forget  the  Inqui 
sition,  remembering  jealous  Christian  inquisitors  who  would  gloat 
over  my  oozing  blood.  Let  me  die  early  if  I  make  no  protest 
against  dogmatic  intolerance  and  fail  to  ask  the  breath  of  God  to 
stir  the  stagnant  pools." 

His  England  speeches  for  our  Union  made  a  fitting  topic  of 
thought  for  the  civilized  world.  He  saved  our  cause  with  more 
than  the  skill  of  a  diplomat,  and  the  courage  of  a  field  marshal  in  a 
Napoleonic  charge.  It  was  a  necessary  conflict  on  a  foreign  shore, 
and  it  was  easy  to  call  out  the  great  orator  in  review  of  that  single 
combat,  regarding  himself  as  sent  by  God  in  personal  service  to  his 
country  in  the  war  for  freedom  and  unity.  The  last  European  trip 
brought  out  this  dinner  talk  just  before  his  departure.  "Will  you 
take  part  in  the  Irish  discussion?"  "No;  I  go  to  see  and  speak 
—  not  as  a  partisan.  Before,  during  our  war,  God  sent  me,  and  1 
loved  to  fight.  I  want  to  see  and  hear  Gladstone,  the  greatest  of 
living  men.  I  am  for  Ireland."  "  I  know  you  do  not  surrender 
your  Americanism."  "Don't  be  alarmed,  my  dear  boyj  if  I  am  an 


REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY   YEARS.  231 

ignorant  theorist  here,  it  will  be  a  pleasure  to  say  we  can  teach  an 
old  mother  tenderly.  Our  industrial  North  has  the  finest  villages 
and  the  happiest  people  on  earth,  in  the  sound  of  the  hum  of  Yan 
kee  machinery."  "That  will  be  like  you,  in  memory  of  your  father 
who  taught  the  nation  on  protection,"  I  said.  "But  you  cannot 
allow  any  speculation,  because  I  am  a  financial  failure,  and  I  do 
not  forget  your  introduction  while  West,  that  I  was  going  to  talk 
about  a  subject  on  which  I  knew  nothing.  The  financial  question 
is  deep  and  dark,  but  I  am  too  old  to  wear  a  straight-jacket.  Free 
trade  is  a  good  way  off,  but  John  Bull,  to  whom  we  owe  so  little, 
will  get  small  comfort  from  my  visit  in  finance  or  policy." 

Beecher  was  true  to  his  word  and  spoke  with  cool  judgment 
abroad,  like  a  true  American,  refusing  to  be  caught  by  the  free 
traders'  blandishments  or  to  side  with  the  landlords.  At  this  time 
he  would  be  called  only  a  pro  tern  democrat.  "  I  am  for  real  prog 
ress,  and  my  old  friends  will  find  that  I  have  burned  no  bridges  to 
prevent  a  return,  and  I  have  not  a  drop  of  mugwump  blood,  if  that 
means  a  sluggish  flow.'7 

I  do  not  forget  that  late  in  life  he  was  allured  from  a  holy  mis 
sion,  by  zealous  friends  and  constant  importunity,  to  speak  from  a 
lower  plane  on  fiscal  science,  in  favor  of  the  theories  of  free  trade. 
Yet  it  was  his  sober  opinion  that  he  was  a  child  in  finance.  An 
army  of  figures  and  a  thousand  conflicting  theories  were  not  suited 
to  his  mental  calibre.  A  pardonable  weakness,  for,  however  tena 
cious  in  theory,  he  was  outspoken  abroad  in  declaration  that  our 
factories  and  forges  held  an  intimate  relation  to  our  advancing 
wealth,  and  to  fair  wages  and  comforts  for  the  laborer. 

With  his  warmest  friends  in  our  sorrow,  I  never  mentioned  his 
political  lapse,  and  his  apology  for  his  presidential  choice.  To 
mention  the  peculiar  occasion  of  his  hostility  to  Mr.  Blaine  would 
only  be  to  recall  the  weaknesses  of  great  men,  forgotten  in  the  halo 
of  eminent  service  which  tempers  and  recasts  public  opinion.  He 
said  at  his  own  table,  the  last  time  I  ever  heard  him  mention  the 
great  name,  "You  worship  brilliancy.  I  do  not  denounce  but  dis 
trusted  Blaine  as  a  president,  the  more  so  as  his  magnetism  pos 
sessed  our  sober  people/'  mentioning  a  half  dozen  prominent  in  his 
church. 

A  deep  emotional  nature  was  a  rare  gift.  It  was  brought  out 
in  the  grief  of  others,  as  the  brilliancy  of  stars  when  skirted  with 
the  dark  clouds.  I  mention  without  coloring  a  tribute  most  honor- 


232  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS. 

able  to  the  parties.  There  was  a  great  national  religious  council 
called  in  the  city  of  Washington  in  1853,  embracing  many  of  the 
most  eminent  laymen  and  divines  of  the  country.  It  was  my  lot 
to  be  appointed  one  of  a  committee  to  notify  the  then  president, 
Franklin  Pierce,  that  it  would  be  agreeable  to  call  upon  him  in  a 
body  at  the  White  House.  We  were  welcomed  by  the  accomplished 
president,  who  set  an  hour  for  our  reception.  As  I  was  about 
closing  the  door  to  leave,  the  president  said,  "I  should  be  happy  to 
have  you  wait  a  moment  and  speak  to  Mrs.  Pierce."  He  returned 
soon  to  say  that  Mrs.  Pierce  said  at  breakfast  this  morning  she 
saw  Mr.  Beecher  was  in  the  city  and  she  hoped  to  see  him,  and 
added,  "  If  you  will  convey  to  him  our  compliments  and  say  Mrs. 
Pierce  would  be  glad  to  see  him  personally,  I  will  esteem  it  a 
favor."  The  council  called  in  a  body,  the  president  quietly  taking 
Mr.  Beecher's  hand  as  the  company  left,  and  he  was  shown  to  Mrs. 
Pierce's  room.  The  interview  was  a  most  remarkable  one,  the 
great  preacher  subsequently  saying  privately  that  he  was  never 
so  overcome  by  the  outpouring  of  an  apparently  broken  heart. 
Their  son,  the  only  child  in  the  family,  was  killed  in  a  railway  acci 
dent,  and  the  mother  had  scarcely  smiled  since  the  occurrence,  and 
almost  refused  to  be  comforted.  The  counsellor  ventured  the  hope 
that  she  would  be  lifted  in  her  despondency,  as  she  soon  after  was. 
The  president  himself  afterward  said  he  had  no  words  to  express 
his  gratitude  to  the  council  for  their  call,  and  the  soothing  words 
of  Mr.  Beecher  had  a  remarkable  effect  in  dispelling  the  dark  cloud 
which  always  seemed  to  hover  over  them,  since  by  the  death  of 
their  dear  boy  they  were  childless. 

Often  when  listening  to  his  public  prayers,  I  have  thought  that 
Mr.  Beecher's  supplications,  so  subdued  in  tone  and  in  simple 
child-like  entreaty,  became  his  most  effective  appeal.  Time  did 
not  lessen  the  impression,  nor  abate  the  novelty  which  forbade  crit 
icism  of  poetic  outbursts,  comforting  and  sweet  to  those  in  mourn 
ing,  who,  like  Mrs.  Pierce,  found  solace  in  sorrow  and  a  new 
occasion  to  hope.  I  once  said  to  him  in  the  West,  "I  was  glad 
you  made  that  long  prayer."  "Long,  was  it  ?  I  am  not  conscious 
of  it,  nor  can  I  recall  anything  I  said,  but  if  taken  up  in  any  good 
sense  out  of  myself,  I  ought  to  be  glad."  He  was  as  tender  as  if 
with  tears  flowing  and  voice  often  broken  —  an  advocate  before  the 
great  throne  with  such  an  effect  on  hearers  as  I  have  never  seen 
elsewhere.  This  colloquy  was  overheard  by  two  young  revilers 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  233 

returning  from  Plymouth  church :  "  How  would  you  like  to  have 
Mr.  Beecher  pray  for  you ? "  "I  don't  know.  I  looked  about  and 
saw  a  large  number  crying,  and,  but  for  you,  I  should  have  wiped 
my  eyes  like  other  people."  The  reply  was,  "That  is  just  the  way 
I  felt." 

There  were  staying  at  the  St.  Nicholas  hotel,  New  York,  two 
railway  magnates  from  the  West,  who  debated  about  calling  a  car 
riage  at  so  late  an  hour  to  hear  Mr.  Beecher.  The  remark  was 
made,  "If  the  prayer  is  not  over  by  the  only  man  I  ever  heard 
pray,  I  do  not  care."  I  happened  to  be  at  the  table  on  their  return, 
when  one  of  the  company  said,  "I  think  Beecher  knows  how  to 
talk  with  God.  I  never  listened  to  such  pathos.  Talk  about 
Shakespeare's  sermons  in  brooks,  etc.,  and  the  like,  I  can  remem 
ber  more  of  that  prayer  than  any  play  of  Shakespeare  or  sermon 
since  I  was  a  boy.  Yes,  I  will  give  a  thousand  dollars  a  year,  with 
as  little  religion  as  I  have,  to  hear  him  pray  in  our  city,  to  say 
nothing  about  his  preaching."  All  in  proof  that  it  was  not  a  vain 
story  that  the  way  to  find  Beecher's  church  was  to  follow  the  Sun 
day  morning  crowd  from  Fulton  Ferry.  The  prayer  welling  up  in 
words  from  the  depths  of  a  burdened  spirit  was  only  less  effective 
than  the  Bible  reading,  in  a  subdued  tone  and  with  a  solemnity 
that  became  worship,  far  removed  from  stage  effect.  It  was  fasci 
nation  in  the  presence  of  individuality  so  alluring.  The  imitators 
paid  an  unconscious  tribute  to  devout  genius. 

I  give  this  as  an  instance  of  his  emotional  nature :  At  his  last 
visit  to  my  house  in  Grinnell,  he  wandered  into  my  Liberty  room, 
so  called  from  its  occupancy  by  John  Brown  and  the  adornment  of 
the  walls  with  historic  characters.  I  found  him  standing  before 
Brainard's  picture,  "  The  Champions  of  Freedom,"  as  they  were  in 
the  public  mind  thirty  years  ago,  including  the  statesmen  Seward, 
John  P.  Hale,  Chase  and  Sumner,  the  editor  Horace  Greeley,  the 
poet  John  G.  Whittier,  and  Henry  Ward  Beecher.  "  The  fallen, 
my  friend,"  said  he,  "are  immortal.  None  left  but  Whittier  and 
myself,"  tears  falling  with  the  remark.  "Why  am  I  spared  to 
keep  company  with  the  Quaker,  whose  verse  has  touched  millions 
of  hearts,  born  of  a  spirit  etherial  that  cares  not  to  tarry ;  but  I 
shall  go  first.  To  be  set  in  that  galaxy  is  beyond  the  honor  of  a 
crown.  These  heroes  fell  short  of  their  ambition,  but  I  who  have 
been  wading  as  through  streams  of  sorrows  rising  to  billows,  am 
left,  but  I  shall  go  next,  and  if  it  please  God  may  it  be  soon. 


234  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS, 

May  I  not  linger,  with  a  brain  clouded,  an  imbecile  long  on  the 
shore.'7  Then  burying  his  face  and  sobbing  almost  convulsively, 
he  said :  "  I  never  felt  so  much  alone  nor  so  old.  Then  I  was 
auburn,  now  gray.  Then  only  imps  and  the  sordid  reviled ;  since 
I  have  had  the  companionship  of  dragons  and  the  brotherhood  of 
owls."  I  tried  to  cheer  him  as  one  of  the  most  fortunate  of  mor 
tals.  "Yes/'  said  he,  "you  are  thinking  of  the  council  in  which 
you  had  a  hand.  What  about  Chamberlain  (J.  M.)  of  your  college, 
whom  I  must  see;  also  Merrill  (J.  H.),  your  Des  Moines  banker, 
and  Doctor  Salter  of  Burlington,  and  Doctor  Beardsley,  who  came  a 
thousand  miles  to  help  a  poor,  sympathetic  fool  out  of  trouble. 
They  did  it,  and  them  I  shall  remember  as  my  song  and  salvation, 
thwarting  Satan  with  the  new  devotion  of  friends  that  hellish 
devices  cannot  alienate." 

In  ending  this  sad  tribute  I  can  only  regret  that  illness  kept 
me  from  being  present  where  my  children  were,  at  the  sad  obse 
quies,  paying  a  tribute  to  one  who  was  enveloped  in  flowers,  the 
aroma  of  which  was  his  breath,  and  amidst  the  griefs  of  the  people 
in  Plymouth  Church,  who  for  near  half  a  century  felt  for  him  an 
almost  pardonable  idolatry.  I  write  in  near  view  of  the  "Beecher 
elm",  whose  grateful  branches  salute  me  almost  at  the  window.  It 
is  named  for  him  who  deemed  it  fitting  that  under  our  clear  west 
ern  sky  man  might  stand  shoeless,  like  Moses  on  the  holy  ground, 
and  with  brow  uncovered.  Did  he  say  that  the  chief  use  of  the 
farm  was  to  lie  down  upon  ?  It  may  have  been  of  more  value  to 
him  for  contemplation  than  to  its  owner  in  fee.  So  is  the  tree  to 
me,  which  inspired  him  who  never  touched  nature  but  to  deck  it 
anew.  I  see  him  in  raptures,  reclining  on  the  green  sward  on  the 
hallowed  Sunday  of  rest.  We  watched  the  flitting  clouds,  and 
poetic  waving  of  the  leaves  of  the  elm  his  pen  has  immortalized, 
standing  in  a  native  grace  which  forbids  mutilation.  Birds  twit 
tered  and  flitted  above  him  in  a  new  song,  and  there  were  kaleido 
scope  views  which  barred  a  mention  of  the  wonders  of  the  starry 
world  as  he  broke  forth :  "  See,  there  is  the  city  of  God.  There  is 
no  picture  of  Jerusalem,  there  never  will  be  a  mirror  of  infinity, 
where  the  bounding  heart  is  still  and  the  brain  at  rest,  that  will 
compare  with  these  glimpses  in  the  heavens  with  the  far  beyond." 
It  was  more  than  a  revery ;  the  reporter  could  not  reproduce  it ; 
memory  only  jots  outlines  in  the  rhapsody  of  one  who  will  be 
remembered  as  so  great  because  he  drank  at  the  sweet  fountains  of 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  235 

Nature,  and  turned  so  many  thousands  of  the  thoughtless  and  err 
ing  by  the  sorceries  of  his  great  heart  in  the  promulgation  of  a 
gospel  on  a  higher  plane  of  life.  He  breathed  the  Christian 
beatitudes,  while  holding  the  white  banner  of  charity  to  shame 
intolerance.  Every  recollection  of  him  unlocks  the  fresh  tears  of 
personal  friends  and  inspires  warmer  tributes  to  his  genius,  great 
heart  and  heroic  life. 


CHAPTEE   XV. 

Some  people  1  have  met — John  G.  Saxe — George  H.  Corliss — 
Alpheus  Hardy  —  Arthur  Sherburne  Hardy  —  Father  Clark- 
son —  W.  F.  Story — Edgar  W.  Nye — Joseph  Cook  —  John  B. 
Gough — Robert  G.  Ingersoll. 

JOHN    GODFREY    SAXE. 

IT  was  at  Middlebury  College  in  1838,  at  a  junior  exhibition, 
that  I  heard  the  genial  speaker.  In  1839  I  was  at  his  graduation. 
The  young  miss,  who  was  my  attendant,  with  our  company  in  one 
of  the  sheep-pen  gallery  pews,  marked  our  favorites,  and  the  poeti 
cal  Saxe  of  a  large  class  was  mine. 

He  was  tall,  and  without  apparent  effort  in  the  line  of  oddity 
and  wit,  in  the  colloquy  where  loud  laughs  followed  the  hits. 
Often  we  met  during  thirty  years,  he  a  versifying  editor  of  a  dem 
ocratic  newspaper  and  a  lecturer.  Fame  he  won  as  poet,  and  the 
chief  of  our  best  punsters,  the  public  demanding  forty  editions  of 
his  works.  As  an  editor  he  was  jovial,  brilliant  in  conversation, 
and  making  pleasure  of  his  office  work. 

If  it  is  fame  to  be  quoted,  Saxe  reached  his  goal.  At  my  home, 
he  was  a  refreshing  story-teller.  In  the  lecture  room,  we  hung  on 
his  lips  for  the  gems  sparkling  in  the  verse  which  his  softened 
brain  could  not  repeat  years  before  his  death  in  the  city  of  Troy. 
But  a  friend  or  a  kindness  were  never  forgotten,  before  his  final 
brain  disease.  The  ripped  coat  which  my  wife  mended  after  sup 
per  found  repeated  mention,  with  an  odd  adaptation  given  to  a 
line  from  Shakespeare,  or  a  stanza  from  Longfellow. 

GEORGE    H.    CORLISS. 

The  world  knows  George  H.  Corliss,  of  Providence,  Rhode 
Island,  master  mechanical  genius,  who  expended  fifty  thousand 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  237 

dollars  in  building  and  setting  up  the  enormous  centennial  engine, 
now  moving  the  wheels  at  Pullman,  Illinois.  Mr.  Corliss'  name 
and  portrait  are  in  our  college  museum,  to  which  he  readily  gave 
twelve  hundred  dollars  for  the  purchase  of  Professor  Ward's  entire 
series  of  geological  casts ;  this  in  addition  to  previous  liberal  gifts 
to  the  college.  His  name  is  blended  with  an  honorable  career  in 
gifts,  labors  and  achievements.  Medals  in  gold,  decorations  by 
crowned  heads  I  did  not  ask  to  see,  when  I  called  on  him,  but  the 
ten  acres  of  buildings,  the  work  of  a  brain  that  cannot  rest  but  in 
the  construction  of  models  which  will  push  mechanism  ahead  a 
century,  cheapening  power  and  diffusing  benefits  over  the  civilized 
world.  This  hint  is  all  I  can  give,  and  when  I  see  one  man  mov 
ing  sixty  tons  on  an  axis  by  a  hand,  I  am  prepared  to  hear  of 
exploits  that  will  astonish  men  everywhere.  There  is  no  cry  of 
strike  about  this  colossal  home  of  Vulcan — the  god  of  smiths. 
The  men  are  paid  far  above  the  scale  of  wages  in  the  old  world, 
and,  none  the  less,  their  employer  avows  indifference  to  foreign 
competition.  He  is  a  high  class,  practical  engineer,  and  the  two 
hours  he  gave  to  us,  amidst  the  wonders,  we  regarded  as  a  compli 
ment  to  the  Iowa  he  admires  but  has  never  seen.  His  views  of 
men  and  national  affairs  are  as  clear  and  incisive  as  a  perception  of 
the  demands  of  his  great  and  exacting  profession,  whereof  he  is 
king  and  servant  in  all  details.  He  was  originally  from  Green 
wich,  New  York,  where,  as  resident  for  some  time,  I  learned  of  his 
early  history.  He  was  a  schoolmate  of  President  Arthur,  who  said 
to  me,  "The  Presidency  is  nothing,  contrasted  with  the  fame  of 
Corliss."  He  died  in  1888,  overworked  in  a  complete  reconstruc- ' 
tion  of  his  great  plant  of  machinery,  on  new  and  improved  plans. 

ALPHEUS    HARDY. 

Alpheus  Hardy,  of  Boston,  died  of  blood  poisoning.  He  was 
leisurely  clipping  off  coupons  with  sharp  shears,  which  fell  from 
his  hand  with  a  painless  stab  in  his  thigh,  discovered  by  a  pool  of 
blood  and  a  gash,  which  was  closed  with  the  best  surgical  skill. 
Such  was  the  slight  casualty  which  ended  the  life  of  one  of  New 
England's  best  known  and  esteemed  citizens  and  business  phi 
lanthropists.  His  wealth  came  by  ships,  and  connection  with  the 
C.,  B.  &  Q.  K'y  and  western  land  investments ;  many  of  these  were 
in  Iowa,  whose  people  and  soil  won  his  praise.  He  was  a  patron 


238  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY  YEARS. 

of  Iowa  College,  his  distinguished  son,  A.  S.  Hardy,  residing  in 
Grinnell  for  years  as  professor,  now  in  Dartmouth  with  national 
fame  as  an  author. 

Mr.  Hardy  was  trustee  of  Dartmouth  College  and  of  Andover 
Theological  Seminary,  sustaining  the  liberals  in  demand  for  toler 
ation  in  the  church  where  he  has  been  a  light  for  near  one  half  a 
century,  and  a  pillar  in  the  "Old  South  Church"  of  Boston.  I 
regret  that  I  cannot  make  public  recent  social  letters  received, 
which  become  a  full  justification  in  declining  his  election  at  Des 
Moines  as  a  member  of  the  Prudential  Board  of  Missions,  where 
he  had  been  the  honored  chairman  for  many  years.  He  has  left  a 
great  vacancy  by  service  and  devotion,  begetting  a  spirit  of  toler 
ation  which  will  long  survive  his  sad  demise.  The  custody  of  the 
Sears  estate,  which  brought  the  largest  wealth  to  the  young  heir, 
Mr.  Montgomery  Sears,  of  any  Boston  boy,  also  brought  wide  repu 
tation  to  Mr.  Hardy,  the  administrator;  but  this  is  quite  over 
shadowed  by  the  liberality,  dignity  and  wisdom  of  a  Christian'  pat 
riotic  statesman.  He  was  a  gentleman,  affluent  in  gifts,  a  trusted 
friend,  model  citizen,  and  humble  servitor  of  a  city  and  a  church, 
where  the  name  of  the  veteran  Hardy  will  be  the  synonym  of  high 
character  which  eulogy  can  hardly  exalt. 

PROF.    ARTHUR    SHERBURNE    HARDY. 

This  gentleman  is  a  son  of  the  late  Alpheus  Hardy,  and  was  for 
several  years  a  professor  in  Iowa  College.  He  was  a  casual  writer 
•  of  poetry  and  is  now  the  noted  author  of  abstruse  mathematical 
works,  also  of  the  novels,  "But  Yet  a  Woman,"  "The  Wind 
of  Destiny,"  and  biographer  of  the  famous  Christian  Japanese, 
Joseph  Neesima,  of  whom  his  noble  father,  Hon.  Alpheus  Hardy  of 
Boston,  was  a  patron.  His  life  is  quiet  and  unpretending,  and  he 
is  now  a  professor  in  Dartmouth  College.  His  ready  mounting  of 
Pegasus  is  in  mind.  I  secured  from  Governor  Merrill  an  invita 
tion  for  him  to  write  a  poem  for  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of 
the  Iowa  capitol  in  1872.  I  was  to  read  it  —  he  had  not  the  cour 
age,  he  said.  When  it  was  brought  to  me  at  night  for  suggestions, 
I  said  with  frankness,  "Very  good;  but  you  got  to  high  for  the 
occasion,  you  shoot  over  your  auditors."  "  I  am  glad  of  the  fail 
ure,"  he  said.  "But,"  said  I,  "I  must  not  discharge  you,  I  will 
make  a  suggestion."  I  made  several,  but  received  no  reply,  only  a 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY    YEARS.  239 

moonlight  salutation,  as  lie  left  my  door.  The  next  morning  he 
appeared  with  the  manuscript,  fresh  and  adapted  to  win  the  praise 
of  lovers  of  classic  lore,  as  it  did  when  I  read  it  amidst  hearty 
applause.  The  state  magnates  were  full  of  admiration  for  his 
versatility  as  a  West  Point  graduate.  This  was  at  least  a  happy 
augury  of  a  brilliant  future.* 

ELIHU    BURRITT. 

Few  receive  such  honor  as  this  noted  linguist  by  a  personal 
mention  in  the  message  of  Edward  Everett,  when  governor  of 
Massachusetts.  It  was  a  learned  blacksmith  attracting  the  world 
by  genius;  a  linguist,  a  peacemaker,  advocating  the  policy  of 
arbitration.  A  traveler  he  was,  too,  exposing  the  wrongs  of  the 
English  factory  system.  All  he  touched  was  with  a  picturesque 
pen  and  cultured  imagination,  in  testimony  of  the  value  of  the  clas 
sics  to  the  writer  of  English. 

Novelty  as  a  learned  blacksmith  was  supplemented  by  the 
broad,  eloquent  speaker  on  many  themes.  I  sat  in  the  enchant 
ment  of  a  mechanic  who  could  read  fifty  languages. 

In  person,  he  was  spare,  forehead  retreating,  nose  almost 
deformed  in  aquiline  shape,  voice  shrill,  but  the  whole  bearing  that 
of  a  simple-hearted  teacher,  a  prophet  of  good,  tolerant  of  all  labor 
ers,  without  egotistic  assertion.  You  would  love  the  man,  as  you 
had  been  drawn  to  the  editor  and  statesman.  He  was  a  living 
example  to  our  youth,  furnishing  testimony  in  the  praise  of  a  life 
unselfish,  and  adherence  to  great  principles.  He  was  the  cham 
pion  of  penny  postage,  the  dismantling  of  war  guns,  rum  shops 


*  The  versatile  genius  which  enables  a  man  to  write  in  two  consecutive  sum 
mers  the  most  widely  sold  novels  of  the  season  and  then  prepare  an  exhaustive 
text-book  on  "  Quartern!  ons",  is  indeed  rare.  The  ordinary  mind  sees  nothing  in 
common  between  fiction  and  the  abstruse  figures  of  geometry  and  naturally  asks, 
How  is  it  possible  for  the  student  who  enjoys  working  all  night  over  the  dry  mys 
teries  of  conic  sections  to  wield  the  light  pen  of  the  writer  of  pleasing  romance  ? 
Still  another  strange  fact  is,  that  while  Professor  Hardy  stands  at  the  head  as  an 
authority  on  higher  mathematics  he  abhors  anything  pertaining  to  arithmetic. 
Illustrative  of  this  he  said  to  a  friend  recently :  "  I  never  knew  anything  about  fig 
ures,  and  of  all  books  in  the  world  I  abhor  an  arithmetic,  so  I  sent  the  books  back. 
My  old  professor  at  West  Point  was  as  deep  a  mathematician  as  I  ever  saw,  and 
yet  he  would  stand  at  the  blackboard  day  after  day  and,  nervously  snapping  his 
fingers  in  the  midst  of  a  'sum',  call  out,  'Come,  now,  eight  times  seven,  how 
much,  how  much  is  it? '"  Professor  Hardy  is  the  choice  of  the  Alumni  to  succeed 
President  Bartlett,  the  present  aged  head  of  the  college.  —  Newspaper. 


240  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

outlawed,  ignorance  banished  by  universal  education.  Mr.  Burritt 
was  repulsed  by  a  lady  and  never  married,  but  can  claim  kinship 
to  a  great  family  of  the  truly  noble,  and  his  intellectual  children 
are  thousands. 

"FATHER  CLARKSON." 

The  sturdy  senior  Clarkson  was  known  generally  as  "Father", 
but  not  because  he  was  parent  of  the  two  brothers,  noted  as  editors 
of  the  Iowa  State  Register — one  of  them,  "Ret"  (James  S.  Clark- 
son),  of  late  often  mentioned  as  chairman  of  the  republican 
national  committee,  and  as  assistant  postmaster-general.  I  used 
to  meet  the  father  at  his  post-office  town,  Eldora,  while  on  my  way 
up  to  my  new  farm  in  Franklin  County.  The  young  men  in  ante- 
war  times  were  on  the  "Melrose  farm",  two  of  whom  are  now 
known  as  "Richard  the  Third"  and  "Ret".  I  met  the  father  at 
the  Chicago  National  Convention  in  1860  as  delegate  from  Iowa. 
We  had  such  conservative  notions  as  to  cast  our  first  votes  for 
Judge  McLean  of  Ohio,  and  next  for  Mr.  Lincoln.  At  that  time 
we  were  opening  farms  of  which  we  talked,  and  were  especially 
anxious  for  railways  to  come  nearer  to  us.  Small  purchases  were 
made  in  our  line.  His,  perhaps,  a  saddle  for  the  boys.  I  remen- 
ber  mine  to  have  been  Yankee  sheep  shears.  Next  I  found  myself 
speaking  in  the  political  canvass  when  the  elder  Clarkson  was 
elected  state  senator  from  Grundy,  his  district  embracing  several 
counties.  In  his  place  at  Des  Moines  he  soon  became  from  a 
stranger  a  man  of  mark ;  eminently  practical,  and  so  firm  in  the 
way  of  certain  specialties  as  to  be  deemed  perverse  and  obstinate ; 
certainly  it  was  a  futile  attempt  to  drive  him  in  committee  or  on 
the  floor  of  the  Senate  from  any  well-considered  opinion  or  policy, 
and  his  moulding  power  in  the  body  is  alike  conceded  with  the  wis 
dom  of  his  counsel.  I  cannot  specify  all  his  acts  subsequent,  for 
he  was  never  idle  where  the  rude  elements  of  empire  were  woven 
and  moulding  into  form. 

Soon  he  gave  himself  a  local  habitation  and  wide  name  by  the 
farmer's  letters  to  The  Register.  These  I  read  closely  and  admired, 
for  I  was  then  writing  for  Mr.  Greeley  and  the  New  York  Tribune, 
and  could  make  apt  quotations  if  not  affluent  in  original  ideas. 
And  it  was  no  surprise  that  these  letters  expanded  with  a  natural 
acorn  growth  into  the  agricultural  department  of  The  State  Regis- 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  241 

ter — a  luxuriant  tree  under  whose  graceful  branches  the  weary 
sons  of  toil  have  shade  and  repose,  and  leaning  against  the  stalwart 
trunk  have  for  these  years  plucked  pleasant  and  nutritious  fruit. 
I  do  not  indulge  either  in  idle  compliment  or  rhetorical  figure,  for 
this  is  the  fact,  I  am  told  —  I  never  counted  them — that  from 
forty  to  fifty  newspapers  are  placed  on  our  family  tables  weekly, 
and  of  the  number  The  Register's  agricultural  page  of  Wednes 
day's  issue  is  most  eagerly  sought  and  first  read.  Nor  am  I  alone, 
and  if  it  is  the  high  ambition  of  the  editorial  gods  to  be  quoted 
and  copied,  and  even  to  be  gratuitously  reviled,  then  the  elder 
Clarkson  can  be  proud  of  a  successful  career.  His  articles  will 
be  found  eminently  common  sense,  and  so  far  saturated  with  per 
sonality  as  never  to  suggest  plagiarism.  The  role  of«  a  pioneer 
farmer  he  had  a  right  to  assume,  and  none  ever  doubted  that  he 
had  the  courage  of  his  convictions,  and  was  an  adept  in  puncturing 
bubbles,  and  took  particular  delight  in  kicking  shams  into  obscur 
ity  ;  and  even  found  use  for  dogs  in  hastening  the  retreating  steps 
of  foreign  tree  peddlers  and  oily-tongued  patent  right  venders. 

At  the  state  gatherings  he  was  a  central  figure,  reading  his 
papers  with  the  deliberation  of  a  judge,  and  enlivening  the  debates 
with  repartee,  and  from  his  storehouse  of  personal  experiences 
becoming  a  valued  instructor.  I  remember  the  applause  that  fol 
lowed  his  sharp  paper  on  "The  Coming  Steer",  a  plea  "that  his 
living  statuary  may  ornament  every  farm  and  add  beauty  to  the 
landscape  on  every  hill  and  in  every  vale  of  Iowa's  wide  domain  ". 
The  "Farm  Literature",  which  was  read  at  the  state  meeting  of 
stock  breeders,  at  Grinnell,  was  a  generous  tribute  to  the  writers, 
not  among  the  living;  and  plain  truth  for  the  conceited  writers  of 
the  time,  who  raise  such  crops  on  paper  as  the  ploughman  and 
grazier  of  early  days  never  anticipated  in  their  wildest  dreams. 
At  the  quarter  centennial  celebration  at  Grinnell,  he  gave  a  stud 
ied  and  able  speech  on  the  advance  of  agriculture. 

Commend  me  to  the  man  that  dares  to  be  singular !  He  at 
least  prevents  a  dead  sea  calm,  and  can  seldom  be  charged  with 
stupidity.  And  this  is  Mr.  Clarkson.  In  face  of  the  wise  prairie 
farmers  he  would  "  spoil "  his  acres  by  deep  ploughing  and  lo !  corn 
cribs  full  and  the  compact  sod  of  rich  grasses.  It  was  a  waste  of 
time  to  plant  evergreens  in  this  clime,  but  the  fine  grounds  at  Mel- 
rose  Farm  give,  through  clumps  and  lines  of  vigorous  native  pines, 
music  to  their  owner  sweeter  than  the  air  breathings  through  the 


242  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS. 

^Eolian  harp.  The  brawny-muscled,  broad-brained  horses  were  the 
Norman  bloods,  strong  and  docile  for  the  farm,  and  they  were 
reared  and  grazed  at  "  Melrose  ".  It  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  he 
would  not  take  up  the  refrain  of  the  theoretical,  bookish  free  trad 
ers,  and  be  a  leader  of  the  Iowa  farmers  in  rebellion  against  the 
American  system. 

W.    F.    STORY,    EDITOR. 

The  founder  of  the  Chicago  Times,  who  built  up  what  was  at 
once  an  organ  and  a  power  with  the  masses,  was  Wilbur  F.  Story. 
Nothing  more  truly  illustrates  the  mutations  of  the  times  than  his 
career.  • 

He  was  a  born  journalist,  with  so  keen  a  scent  for  news,  and  a 
talent  for  gaining  notoriety,  that  great  wealth  came,  and  the  double 
coveted  honor  of  one  both  feared  and  quoted.  In  the  war,  a  verg 
ing  toward  treason  caused  a  temporary  suppression  of  his  sheet, 
which  gained  him  notoriety  and  facility  to  feed  a  public  morbid 
appetite  for  pictures  of  persons  it  was  safe  to  scandalize.  Essen 
tially  bad,  a  life's  ambition  was  attained  —  to  found  a  great  house 
and  a  paper  reaching  a  million  of  people  and  worth  as  many 
dollars.  His  financial  and  social  troubles,  and  the  lapse  into  for- 
getfulness,  which  is  the  doom  of  sordid  expediency,  are  well  known. 

Mr.  Story  began  life  near  my  Vermont  home,  in  the  shadow  of 
Middlebury  college.  He  was  clear  in  perception,  wide-read,  and 
audacious  and  malignant  in  attack ;  but  with  some  redeeming  qual- 
iteis  which  on  cultivation  would  have  saved  his  name  from  early 
forgetfulness. 

In  1872  we  were  standing  on  our  platform  to  elect  Horace 
Greeley  president.  By  Story's  secretary  I  was  invited  to  call. 
"  Sit  down,"  said  he,  "  and  let  me  tell  you  how  many  years  I  have 
lampooned  you  and  the  radicals.  My  point  is  gained,  and  no  more 
will  The  Times  say  how  bad  you  are.  Its  columns  are  open  to 
you."  And  so  I  learned  a  lesson  of  charity. 

EDGAR    W.    NYE. 

"Bill  Nye,  who  was  he?"  asked  a  citizen.  "You  must  have 
met  him."  My  answer  was,  I  have,  and  was  introduced  to  him  on 
the  train  as  the  young  man  who  received  the  advice  to  -Go 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY  YEARS.  243 

West".  We  had  a  pleasant  chat  of  a  few  hours,  and  the  next  I 
knew  of  his  writing  was  a  humorous  chapter  on  "Men  I  have 
saw".  The  picture  of  myself  was  so  ludicrous  as  to  forbid  anger 
or  resentment  at  his  sarcasm  relative  to  my  efforts  for  constitu 
tional  prohibition,  also  the  impossibility  of  adjusting  my  voice  to 
the  accoustic  demands  of  Church  and  salary  in  New  York  City; 
but  this  personal  mention  was  trivial  compared  to  the  mirthful 
suggestions  in  regard  to  others  in  the  same  chapter.  Bill  Nye  is  a 
man  about  fifty,  not  the  spectacled,  cadaverous  old  man  his  artist 
represents  him  to  be  in  wood-cuts.  He  is  genial  as  a  story-teller, 
hearty  in  laughter,  terse  in  reply,  whose  scintillations  of  wit  seem 
like  the  sparks  from  a  highly-charged  electrical  battery.  He 
touches  follies  and  facts  with  the  hand  of  a  master.  He  asked 
me  if  I  had  ever  met  Doctor  Mary  Walker,  and,  to  my  surprise, 
the  facts  I  gave  appeared  in  his  article,  seasoned  with  his  humor. 
She  wore  a  gentleman's  suit,  nourishing  a  cane,  with  hair  shin 
gled,  and  was  a  frequent  visitor  in  the  Washington  departments, 
where  she  was  an  applicant  for  an  office,  contrary  to  the  presump 
tion  that  she  enjoyed  a  lucrative  medical  practice.  Her  role 
seemed  to  be  rating  man  for  his  a? sumptions,  and  venting  her  com 
plaint  against  her  Maker  because  she  was  a  woman. 

JOSEPH    COOK. 

Joseph  Cook  appeared  in  Nye's  same  article,  with  an  illustra 
tion.  He  was  in  the  attitude  of  holding  an  oil-can,  apparently 
lubricating  the  planets  in  their  revolutions,  explanatory  of  his 
directing  and  moulding  the  theological  thought  of  the  age.  But 
I  disclaim  any  responsibility  for  the  picture.  Dogmatic  as  Mr. 
Cook  is,  like  other  great  men,  he  is  a  great  reader  and  deep 
thinker.  Depreciatory  letters  having  been  sent  abroad  in  regard 
to  his  waning  influence,  it  will  not  be  egotism  for  me  to  mention 
that  I  was  invited  to  speak  with  him  at  the  lecture  hour  in  the 
great  Tremont  Temple.  While  the  windows  were  crowded  and 
aisles  thronged,  I  could  but  say,  repelling  his  enemies,  that  I 
thought  the  volumes  evoked  and  the  audiences  gathered  had  made 
the  indelible  mark  of  a  great  American  thinker.  This  is  not  say 
ing  that  all  great  reformers  and  thinkers  are  lovely,  above  compar 
ison  and  without  fault,  in  contending  for  the  faith. 


244  EEMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

JOHN    B.    GOUGH. 

John  B.  Gough  I  cannot  omit.  I  first  heard  him  in  the  begin 
ning  of  his  career  as  a  temperance  orator.  It  was  a  magnificent 
outpouring  of  genuine  eloquence  from  the  heart  —  from  the  depths 
of  his  wretched  experience;  and  all  his  native  and  cultivated  stage 
arts  were  then  unconscious  accessories  to  the  impassioned  effort. 
In  private,  too,  he  was  simple  and  hearty,  with  none  of  the  man- 
of-the-world  manner  he  acquired  after  he  had  been  feted  abroad 
and  at  home.  Those  who  heard  him  only  in  his  later  years,  when 
his  frequent  repetitions  on  the  lecture-platform  had  given  an  evi 
dently  mechanical  character  to  his  finest  outbursts  and  best  stories, 
could  form  no  idea  of  the  overpowering  impression  made  by  his 
earlier  addresses. 

KOBEKT    G.    INGERSOLL. 

In  a  congressional  chapter  preceding,  it  was  mentioned  that  I 
surprised  Eben  C.  Ingersoll  by  resigning  in  his  favor,  and  that  he 
was  placed  high  on  the  committee  on  territories,  which  was  much 
sought  after  at  that  period  of  organization  and  lucrative  appoint 
ments.  This  not  only  brightened  the  future  of  Mr.  Ingersoll,  but 
his  brother  the  orator,  apprised  of  his  good  fortune  by  the  resigna 
tion,  wrote  the  already  quoted  letter,  incipient  to  a  long  and  pleas 
ant  acquaintance.  He  never  forgot  this  little  act  on  behalf  of  his 
brother,  at  whose  grave  there  fell  words  softening  the  sharp  asper 
ities  of  critics.  I  was  made  welcome  to  his  ranch  in  the  moun 
tains  of  New  Mexico,  and  could  not  prevail  on  him  to  accept  a  legal 
fee  in  the  matter  of  counsel  to  me  as  railway  receiver.  His  failure 
to  accept  a  personal  invitation  to  speak  in  Grinnell  is  explained  by 
his  remark  that  as  "the  audience  room  was  a  church,  he  might 
wound  the  brethren  ". 

It  is  too  late  now  to  assume  that  the  renowned  skeptic  is  a 
common  man,  or  that  the  thousands  who  have  essayed  answers  to 
his  philippics  have  succeeded  fully,  when  bishops,  publicists,  and 
even  Gladstone  step  into  the  arena  of  debate.  What,  then,  is  the 
secret  of  his  attraction  ?  He  is  an  agnostic  —  an  abnormal  product 
by  the  repulsions  of  systems  of  theology  couched  in  terms  now  in 
disuse.  But  is  he  an  infidel  with  the  bridges  destroyed  behind 
him,  when  he  can  say,  "In  the  dark  night  of  death  hope  sees  a 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEABS.  245 

star,  and  listening  love  may  catch  the  rustle  of  a  wing"  ?  Is  it  not 
possible  that,  on  a  sober  recast  of  opinion,  he  might  be  a  pulpit 
successor  of  Beecher,  to  whom  he  is  allied  in  transcendant  gifts  ? 

But  what  are  the  hidings  of  his  power?  He  talks  with  his 
fingers,  begets  mirth  with  the  twinkle  of  his  eye,  winning  in  pan 
tomimic  facial  expression  and  forcing  conviction  with  the  swaying 
of  arms  and  gesture  on  the  platform,  and  all  with  the  mobility  of  a 
rotund,  rollicking  gentleman,  schooled  in  cadence  and  the  devices 
of  speech.  His  voice  is  of  great  compass  and  thrills  with  emotion, 
laden  with  fresh  and  startling  conception  and  sublime  imagery, 
bringing  into  service  flowers,  the  air,  earth's  wonders,  the  stars, 
man  and  the  gods.  Judges  and  jurors  are  entertained  by  a  wit 
and  a  pleader,  with  the  resources  of  the  severest  student  of  books 
and  men.  Has  his  fervid  rhetoric  in  the  nomination  of  Blaine 
ever  been  equaled?  Did  the  surviving  patriots  of  our  war  ever 
listen  to  such  an  address  as  that  before  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic  at  Indianapolis  ?  It  hangs  in  golden  letters  in  my  parlor 
to  remind  of  genius,  pathos  and  matchless  oratory. 

The  "one  hundred"  tributes  to  the  lamented  Beecher  are  before 
me  in  a  volume.  All  the  honored  professions  from  many  lands 
bring  their  myrtle  wreaths,  yet  there  is  but  one  full,  felicitous 
delineation,  and  warmth  of  eulogy — a  smiting  of  the  rock  for 
freshness  —  a  successful  draft  on  genius  to  illumine  the  career  of 
his  friend.  In  the  sorceries  of  a  casuist,  and  power  in  irreverent 
declamation  where  he  stands  without  a  peer,  I  hope  he  may  have 
no  rival  in  the  ranks  of  men  now  living,  and  mine  is  a  fervent 
prayer  that  he  may  be  no  more  clouded  with  doubt,  nor  be  occu 
pied  in  cavil,  but  prove  that  the  highest  and  holiest  mission  of  an 
orator  and  the  sublimest  service  of  genius  is  to  lead,  in  a  world  of 
darkness  and  doubt,  following  in  the  footsteps  of  the  God-man. 

The  author,  on  the  delivery  of  his  New  Haven,  Vermont,  ora 
tion,  mentioned  the  father  of  Mr.  Ingersoll  studying  theology 
there,  saying,  "The  son  was  one  who  by  the  latest  advices  did 
not  gain  and  does  charge  his  theology  to  tradition."  Thereon  is 
founded  the  occasion  of  the  following  correspondence : 


NEW  YORK,  March  15,  1887. 
My  dear  Mr.  Grinnell : 

With  great  pleasure  I  read  your  oration,  and  it  took  me  hack  amid  the  dead 
years.  I  have  heard  my  father  speak  of  Dr.  Hopkins  a  thousand  times.  What  a 
dreary  life  it  must  have  been  in  Vermont  some  seventy-five  years  ago  with  the 


246  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

snow  several  feet  deep,  the  mercury  down  in  the  bulb,  and  nothing  of  a  cheerful 
nature  except  the  theology  of  Hopkins. 

Nothing  gives  me  so  much  pleasure  as  to  watch  the  decay  of  the  old,  cruel  and 
malignant  creeds.  What  the  preachers  do  not  say  is  what  pleases  me.  They  are 
ashamed  of  the  doctrine  —  ashamed  to  tell  the  "tidings  of  great  joy".  In  other 
words,  they  are  getting  a  little  sense. 

Now,  I  want  you  some  day  when  you  are  at  leisure  to  think  this  business  over, 
and  if  you  will  think,  you  will  see  how  sad  and  terrible  the  religion  called  evangel 
ical  is. 

I  hope  to  see  you  converted — hope  to  see  you  a  free  man  with  the  dust  brushed 
off  your  knees. 

Thanking  you  for  the  oration,  I  remain  yours  always, 

K.  G.  INGERSOLL. 

NORMAL,  ILLINOIS,  February  4,  1888. 
My  dear  Mr.  Ingersoll: 

I  have  just  returned  from  a  winter  visit  to  the  city  of  Mexico  and  California 
and  find  your  welcome  letter.  My  Vermont  oration  did  not  require  an  acknowl 
edgement  if  it  did  mention  your  reverend  father  and  yourself.  Dr.  Hopkins,  whom 
you  say  your  "  father  spoke  of  a  thousand  times  ",  was  a  character  in  that  day,  and 
it  is  a  pleasant  reflection  that  my  ancestors  enjoyed  his  friendship,  and  that  he 
moulded  a  community  of  rare  qualities,  you  would  say  save  as  to  their  theology. 

I  hear  a  fresh  story  which  reminds  that  there  was  good  orthodox  perception  in 
the  father  you  mention  as  a  student.  I  judge  he  did  not  bite  his  thumb  in  the 
morning  to  find  whether  he  was  "in  the  me  or  the  not-me  world".  Like  his  son 
he  was  a  revivalist,  but  of  another  order.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  sermon  a  com 
pany  of  young  ladies  engaged  him  in  personal  conversation.  The  frivolity  of  one 
with  a  decollete  dress  even  below  the  fashion,  caused  the  advice  that  "if  she 
wished  to  become  a  Christian,  she  had  best  go  home  and  cover  up  ".  I  regarded  it 
as  more  than  a  legend  —  a  fact  which  does  credit  to  the  family. 

It  is  said  that  the  speculations  and  doubts  of  the  author  of  "The  Gods" 
as  to  the  Holy  Land  and  its  Christ,  expressed  in  the  campany  of  General  Lew  Wal 
lace,  led  to  the  volume  "  Ben  Hur  ",  insuring  to  the  author  competence,  and  to  his 
readers  delight  and  confirmation  of  our  sacred  history.  If  this  be  truth,  I  might 
quote  a  maxim,  if  not  in  fear  that  it  might  be  offensive.  As  it  is,  a  thousand  times 
publicly  expressing  my  admiration  for  the  boldest  rhetorical  figures,  and  eloquence 
in  every  nerve  and  intonation,  I  frankly  say  that  without  so  noble  a  purpose,  you 
have,  by  impetuosity  in  attack,  given  an  example  which  has  hushed  the  rattle  of 
the  dry  bones  in  the  pulpit  and  sent  swift,  healthful  life-currents  down  the  chan 
nels  of  modern  thought.  Bad  as  you  are  painted,  and  in  error  as  I  think  you, 
there  may  be  time  to  correct  the  sheet  being  kept,  and  to  be  balanced  on  the  entry 
book,  "  Cr.  —  A  recast  of  opinions  in  orthodox  orations  by  Robert  G.  Ingersoll." 
Now  as  to  your  advice  that  I  should  "brush  the  dust  from  my  knees  ".  It  sug 
gests  on  my  part  supererogation,  which  might  possibly  be  in  the  line  of  virtues  to 
be  modestly  cultivated  in  the  porch  of  the  theological  temple  which  you  invite  me 
to  enter  for  reflection. 

Then  you  "  hope  to  see  me  a  free  man  "  and  "  converted  ",  etc.  I  am  insensi 
ble  to  bondage.  For  many  years  I  have  been  an  unofficial  character ;  any  doctrine 
I  have  proclaimed  has  been  one  unpaid  for ;  perhaps  its  saving  quality  was  that  it 
was  cheap. 

To  what  shall  I  be  converted,  being  now  a  Protestant  of  the  liberal  school  ? 
You  are  a  theological  doubter,  a  charged  battery  of  negatives,  silent  when  I  ask 
for  your  church,  and  about  the  crossing  of  the  "  melancholy  flood  "  with  a  better 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  247 

ferryman  than  mine,  and  without  a  friend  in  the  God-man,  who  has  so  long  buoyed 
up  so  many  of  the  sad  with  the  promise  of  a  royal  welcome.  If  this  is  a  delusion, 
so  let  it  remain.  I  confide  in  the  Man  of  men ;  the  voluntary  sacrifice  of  the  Son 
of  the  highest.  Never  shall  I  escape  the  bias,  nor  the  guilt  of  my  ancestor  on 
trial  and  free;  who  fell. 

With  my  ancestors  He  was  persecuted  in  France  —  the  Huguenots  poor  and  in 
exile.  To  many  generations  He  has  been  a  high  model  and  a  solace  in  death. 
Now  in  the  strifes  for  mastery  over  evil  I  am  as  conscious  of  His  presence  as  I  am 
of  my  existence.  So,  while  regarding  theology  as  a  science,  I  join  you  in  delight 
on  the  abandonment  of  dogmatism  and  pharasaic  cant,  but  any  system  which 
denies  the  need  of  a  mediator,  and  one  that  came  with  the  zeal  of  a  martyr  and  the 
love  of  a  God  to  fight  the  great  plenipotentiary  battle  for  the  race,  is  opposed  to 
early  and  most  sacred  trust,  and  does  not  commend  itself  to  my  judgment  in 
advanced  years.  Religion,  its  own  evidence,  I  find  not  alone  in  theologies  and 
books,  but  in  the  heroism  of  the  high,  and  rich  experiences  of  the  humble  and 
poor. 

And  now,  my  dear  Ingersoll,  even  in  humble  station  and  not  hovering  in 
doubt,  I  express  the  conviction  that  my  unalloyed  confiding  trust  in  the  great  fun 
damental  truths  of  the  Christian  religion  and  Christ  as  exemplar,  brings  me  in  a 
single  hour  of  reflection  greater  joy  than  all  the  speculations  in  which  you  can 
indulge  and  the  breath  which  comes  in  the  applause  of  those  waiting  on  your  lips 
of  genius.  Hence  you  will  pardon  the  hope  that  my  joys  may  be  yours,  ecstacies 
possible  to  one  with  gifts  and  opportunities  to  change  the  currents  of  thought  of 
millions;  and  oh,  what  service  you  can  render  to  Him  (whether  only  man,  martyr 
or  the  missionary  of  a  Creator)  and  to  a  world  demanding  an  example  which  has 
brought  much  of  blessing  and  waits  to  fill  this  and  all  worlds  with  the  beatitudes 
of  a  living  Saviour. 

Yours  truly, 

J.  B.  GRINNBLL. 


CHAPTEE  XVI. 

Iowa  and  lowans  —  Col.  S.  H.  M.  Byers,  our  war  historian — 
Charles  Aldrich  —  D.  N.  Richardson — Hon.  Ezekiel  Clark  — 
John  L.  Coffin —  Generals  James  B.  Weaver,  N.  B.  Baker,  John 
M.  Corse,  Samuel  R.  Curtis,  G.  M.  Dodge,  J.  M.  Crocker  and 
William  W.  Belknap  —  Governors  Grimes,  Kirkwood,  Stone, 
Merrill,  Carpenter,  Gear,  Sherman  and  Larrabee — Judges 
Wright,  Nourse,  Miller,  Dillon,  Love  and  McCrary —  Hons. 
Graves,  Moninger,  Howell  and  McDill — Henry  Clay  Dean. 

IOWA  has  no  state  historian,  as  yet.  It  is  not  because  she  had 
no  writers  of  ability.  But,  she  is  a  proud  maker  of  history,  if  not 
prolific  in  book-makers.  No  state,  in  a  half  century  of  progress, 
has  made  equal  national  advances.  None  has  a  more  honored 
civil  and  military  record,  worthy  to  beckon  millions  to  her  prairies. 
Governor  Grimes  well  named  her  "the  fair  and  only  free  child  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise".  Bounded  on  the  east  and  west  by  two 
great  rivers  —  "The  Father  and  Mother  of  Waters" — she  has  been 
called  the  Mesopotamia  of  the  West.  Excluding  the  northern 
third  of  Maine,  a  wilderness,  her  area  equals  that  of  New  England ; 
and  her  free  principles,  intelligence  and  high  moral  and  religious 
tone,  have  made  her  known  as  the  New  England,  and  the  Massa 
chusetts  more  especially,  of  the  states  of  the  great  valley. 

We  have  no  historian,  and  can  wait  his  appearing  until  at  least 
nine  tenths  of  our  virgin  acres  have  burnished  the  plowshare.  Let 
him  bide  his  time  until  our  valleys  are  musical  with  the  sound  of 
mechanism,  and  our  homes  become  beautiful  in  the  glow  of  refined 
civilization.  Let  him  celebrate  the  courage  of  pioneers,  who 
brought  to  our  commonwealth  select  affinities,  free  schools  and  a 
high  social  and  literary  rank.  Defer  biography  and  statues  of 
benefactors  until  the  issue  of  a  war  against  the  shameless  social 
enemies,  whose  cohorts  and  leaders  are  in  ambush.  This  delay 
may  not  obscure  the  grandest  agricultural  achievements,  and  nei- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY  YEARS.  249 

ther  silence  nor  time  will  avail  to  dim  the  recorded  deeds  of  men, 
to  pass  into  material  for  historic  pages. 

It  was  an  opinion  of  Webster,  and  to  the  credit  of  New  Hamp 
shire,  that  if  the  state  was  poor  in  soil  and  cereals,  she  was  rich  in 
the  product  of  men.  Where  is  the  limit  of  praise,  then,  to  a 
double  production  of  comely  herd  and  cultured  owner,  on  farms 
hospitable  to  skill,  to  domestic  bloods  and  to  factory?  Figures 
often  bewilder,  while  comparisons  with  the  well  known  are  a  good 
basis  of  opinion. 

What  are  some  of  the  facts  which  are  the  boast  of  our  rural 
people  ?  Iowa  with  its  annual  average  production  of  two  hundred 
millions  of  bushels  of  corn ;  surpassing  any  state  as  the  basis  of 
meat  —  pork  and  beef — for  this  and  foreign  countries  —  a  sum 
total  of  two  millions  of  bovines,  embracing  more  beef-animals  and 
butter-creameries  than  any  state  —  millions  of  swine  in  excess  of 
her  rivals,  reared  with  profit  under  natural  farming  conditions, 
and  shipped  to  many  countries,  facilitating  exchanges  and  helping 
a  fine  trade  balance.  Yielding  the  palm  to  newer  states  in  wheat 
growing,  Iowa  is  only  second  in  the  product  of  oats  and  flax,  and 
is  coming  to  the  first  rank  in  amount  of  native  and  cultivated 
grasses  for  home  use  and  export,  broadening  the  farms  and  attract 
ing  an  industrious  and  moral  people  to  a  home  on  the  remaining 
ten  millions  of  acres,  rich  in  soil  and  fine  in  topography,  yet 
untouched  by  a  plow.  Nature  has  given  bracing  air  and  ample 
drainage,  to  exempt  from  malaria  in  a  great  degree,  and  give  vital 
ity  and  health  to  the  electric,  courageous  spirits  from  many  states 
and  lands.  Groves  of  trees  which  rise  to  beauty,  for  protection 
and  fuel,  are  readily  grown  in  a  decade.  Coal,  discovered  in 
purity  and  fabulous  quantities,  has  dispelled  all  doubts  as  to  want 
of  fuel  for  home,  and  for  steam  manufactory  and  locomotive 
demands. 

In  railway  mileage  Iowa  is  third  in  the  Union,  having  eight 
thousand  miles,  reaching  every  one  of  the  ninety-nine  counties, 
with  a  station  but  a  few  miles  from  every  farm.  Five  trunk  lines 
across  the  state  attract  the  bulk  of  the  interoceanic  trade  of  the 
country,  added  to  which  is  the  distribution  of  fruits  and  products 
indigenous  to  other  countries,  by  a  net-work  of  steel  tracks  joined 
to  the  great  arteries,  now  harmonious  and  by  increasing  comity 
giving  promise  of  celerity,  cheapness  and  safety  to  the  patrons, 
and  reward  to  capital  and  enterprise. 


250  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    TEARS. 

NO    FAILURES. 

I  have  seen  but  one  failure  in  a  conspicuous  Iowa  project.  It 
was  the  damming  of  the  Des  Moines  river  for  slack  water  naviga 
tion,  and  indirectly  furnishing  hydraulic  power.  As  stated  in  the 
sarcasm  of  the  governor's  message  to  a  third  House,  six  dams  were 
built  and  only  fifty  remained  to  be  constructed.  The  power  is  now 
partially  utilized  by  private  capital,  while  a  commercial  waterway 
as  a  national  device  is  abandoned,  after  great  expenditures  of  time 
and  money.  Even  this  was  more  of  an  engineering,  governmental, 
political  scheme  than  a  policy  of  the  people.  There  were  many 
incidents  contributing  to  failure,  but  the  chief  was  a  rival  in  the 
railway  system  —  an  all-the-year-round  servant  in  place  of  boats 
subject  to  the  vicissitudes  of  ice  and  drouth.  A  basis  of  value  was 
made  on  the  transportation  of  grass  products  to  the  great  river,  to 
be  floated  to  the  Gulf  for  the  feeding  of  hungry  nations  by  the  ser 
vice  of  ships.  Then  came  the  policy  of  condensing  grain  values  into 
animals,  and  the  establishing  of  home  industries,  promoting  easy 
exchanges  and  making  home  commerce  more  profitable  than  for 
eign  trade.  "Wait  for  the  wagon."  No,  that  was  in  song,  nor  can 
we  wait  on  slack  water  from  Keokuk  up  for  two  hundred  miles  to 
the  Raccoon  Forks.  This  was  a  resolve  never  more  to  be  reconsid 
ered,  in  an  age  of  steel  and  steam,  pushing  on  the  flyer  and  can 
non-ball  trains  fleet  as  the  wind.  It  is  a  cheering  fact  that,  with 
out  scandal  against  officials  and  the  abandonment  of  the  "  feeding  of 
the  world  theory  "  (a  favorite  theme  of  middle  men  and  ship  own 
ers),  a  more  promising  field  for  skill  and  enterprise  was  opened. 
Wool  growers  temporarily  went  to  the  rear,  but  other  animal 
industries  came  to  the  foreground  of  every  rural  district,  where  cli 
mate  and  soil  and  the  skill  'of  the  owners  give  assurance  of  that 
proud  supremacy  to  which  Iowa  has  attained. 

Is  the  state  well  worthy  of  higher  honors  ?  Her  institutions 
are  her  crown  jewels,  reformatory,  educational,  humane  and  chari 
table.  They  rose  in  our  Civil  War  amidst  the  anathemas  of  not 
all  loyal  tax-payers,  hushed  now  in  non-partisan  support,  and  a 
pride  becoming  to  honored  citizens.  To  name  each  —  from  a 
capitol  unrivaled  in  the  West  for  splendor,  with  the  less  preten 
tious  edifices,  down  to  the  last  —  a  completed  soldier's  home  in 
order  of  beneficence  —  to  name  each  would  include  an  array  of 
institutions  of  just  state  pride  in  making  liberal  appropriations. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS.  251 

The  product,  in  all  matters  material  and  aesthetic,  reflects  the 
brain  and  hand  of  the  maker.  By  this  aphorism,  we  place  the  fair 
est  product  earth  holds  up  to  its  Maker  —  man,  the  conservator  and 
builder,  on  a  pedestal,  in  tribute  to  personal  devotion  and  leader 
ship  in  whatever  things  are  in  the  realm  of  citizenship  "lovely  and 
of  good  report ". 

All  before  1854  as  hearsay  I  leave,  seeking  headlands  in  per 
sonality  of  which  I  can  safely  speak.  Of  the  veteran  "  Father 
Clarkson ",  who  properly  belongs  in  this  chapter,  I  have  already 
spoken,  as  well  as  of  senators  Wilson  and  Allison,  and  others,  as 
the  narrative  brought  them  into  mention. 

THE    WAR    HISTORIAN. 

Col.  S.  H.  M.  Byers,  with  scholastic  culture,  the  genius  of  a 
poet  and  the  fervor  of  a  young  patriot,  found  himself  enlisting  in 
the  Fifth  Iowa  regiment,  and  finally  captured  as  a  prisoner,  being 
one  of  sixteen  out  of  sixty  spared  to  tell  the  story.  His  volume 
on  the  late  war  bears  the  marks  of  an  historian,  and  does  honor  to 
our  soldiery  in  depicting  the  battles  ih  which  they  were  engaged, 
while  giving  due  credit  to  the  citizens  who  sustained  them.  It  is 
illustrated  with  taste,  abundant  in  details,  and  evincing  versatility 
and  elegance  in  description.  Our  public  men  in  the  war  era  are 
eulogized,  and  the  conspicuous  characters  in  regimental  history  are 
noted  with  accuracy.  An  elegant  book  of  six  hundred  pages, 
printed  in  Des  Moines,  commends  the  author  and  his  product  to 
every  loyal  citizen,  to  make  no  mention  of  the  wider  fame  acquired 
by  his  poem,  "Sherman's  March  to  the  Sea".  Colonel  Byers 
reflected  honor  on  his  appointment  to  a  consulship  in  Switzerland, 
and  his  subsequent  service  as  consul-general  at  Borne.  Our  college 
is  especially  indebted  to  him  for  an  expensive  set  of  Swiss  school 
apparatus,  illustrating  science  and  industries  by  charts  and 
specimens. 

HONORABLE    CHARLES    ALDRICH. 

Honorable  Charles  Aldrich,  of  Webster  City,  is  placing  our  peo 
ple  under  increasing  and  lasting  obligation.  He  had  rank  in  our 
late  army  as  an  officer,  high  repute  as  .an  editor,  and  became  one 
of  our  state  legislators.  By  correspondence,  foreign  travel  and 


252  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY  TEAES. 

extensive  acquaintance  with  authors,  he  has  for  years  been  an 
enthusiastic  collector  of  autographs,  manuscripts  and  pictures  of 
historical  characters,  which  form  a  rare  cabinet,  which  he  placed 
at  the  disposal  of  the  state,  without  reference  to  reimbursement. 
The  Iowa  state  capitol,  wanting  in  costly  pictures  and  marble 
busts,  has  thus  a  unique  and  attractive  collection  in  the  useful  trib 
ute  of  citizen  Aldrich  to  the  name  and  fame  of  our  most  noted 
citizens  and  the  great  actors  for  centuries.  Thousands  of  visitors 
make  mention  of  this  collection,  and  Governor  Larrabee,  retiring 
from  the  chair  of  state,  suggested  money  testimonial  to  the  author, 
which  has  been  appropriated,  though  in  no  sense  a  reward  for 
years  of  unselfish  acquisition  of  the  treasures  now  made  the  prop 
erty  and  instructive  entertainment  of  the  public.  Thus  has  taste, 
liberality  and  devotion  to  the  state  made  a  name  enshrined  in  mem 
ory  while  the  commonwealth  has  a  beautiful  capitol.  In  the  same 
generous  spirit,  Mr.  Aldrich's  charming  pen  has  many  times  been 
employed  in  making  known  to  the  people,  by  contributions  to  our 
newspapers,  the  claims  of  institutions,  men  and  measures,  too 
little  appreciated.  He  is  the  eloquent  friend  of  all  merit  and 
refining  enterprise. 

OTHER    NOTABLES. 

D.  N.  Richardson,  of  Davenport,  a  native  of  Vermont,  cultiva 
ting  rural  tastes  as  a  gentleman  cattle  farmer,  developed  genius  in 
amassing  a  competence  while  a  democratic  editor  and  newspaper 
publisher  in  a  republican  state.  Well  has  he  answered  the  ques 
tion,  " Where  is  the  literature  on  Iowa  soil?'7  A  cultivated  taste 
seen  in  original  felicitous  description  as  a  journalist,  inspired  a 
world-round  trip,  with  timely  accessories  of  cash,  leisure  and  com 
pany.  After  his  return  the  Chicago  press  brought  out  a  volume 
that  is  innocent  of  platitudes.  It  is  a  new,  fresh  vein  of  story 
telling,  description  and  adventure.  The  volume  has  hung  before 
me  pictures  drawn  by  a  master,  in  a  story  of  peoples  and  lands 
the  million  may  not  visit,  but  may  see  through  another's  eye  in  a 
pleasing  illusion  that  they  are  there. 

Hon.  Ezekiel  Clark,  of  Iowa  City,  was  an  early  settler,  an  able 
state  senator,  an  esteemed  worker  in  our  state  politics,  and  a 
trusted  citizen.  He  was  the  first  employed  to  purchase  clothing 
for  our  soldiery.  His  enterprise  was  not  limited  to  his  farm,  to 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  253 

bank,  mill,  railway  extension  or  coal  mining.  Cool  in  action, 
sagacious  in  advice,  lie  can  never  pass  out  of  memory  for  a  great 
heart,  beating  effectively  in  time  of  calamity  for  the  unfortunate. 
To  meet  the  wants  of  the  suffering  in  the  great  Grinnell  tornado 
of  1882,  he  left  his  home  to  minister  personally  to  strangers, 
besides  giving  the  first  check  for  five  hundred  dollars,  mentioned 
elsewhere,  not  only  to  restore  the  desolation,  but  to  remind  how 
imperative  are  the  obligations  which  rest  on  prosperous  citizens. 
Truly  the  note  of  liberality  was  struck  high,  and  vibrating 
responses  brought  prompt  and  large  benefactions  which  have  few 
parallels  in  the  annals  of  relief  afforded  to  the  poor  and  houseless 
wasted  by  storm. 

John  L.  Coffin,  of  Fort  Dodge,  with  a  kindly  heart,  and  noble 
ambition  to  step  out  of  rather  than  into  the  political  procession, 
has  won  more  than  my  respect.  A  railroad  commissioner  by 
appointment,  he  was  at  a  post  of  observation  which  he  well 
improved.  Officially,  he  dared  make  a  plea  for  rest  due  to  railway 
employees  on  Sunday.  It  was  a  John  the  Baptist  cry  in  the  wil 
derness,  where  capital,  greed  and  official  stolidity  dominated  and 
slept.  The  echoes  of  his  argument  will  be  loud  and  potent  in  sec 
onding  the  great-hearted  William  E.  Dodge,  and  those  who  are 
friends  of  laborers,  in  demanding  for  them  rest  on  Sunday,  and 
honor  to  Him  who  commanded  amidst  the  thunderings  of  Sinai. 
Safety  for  brakemen  on  cars  is  also  the  desire  of  Mr.  Coffin, 
enforced  by  appeal  to  humanity  and  law.  No  mere  moral  knight- 
errant  is  he,  but  a  warm-hearted  pleader  for  humane  improvements, 
which  will  insure  immunity  from  maiming  for  the  men,  added  to 
the  birthright  of  rest  for  toilers.  Mr.  Coffin  is  under  seventy 
years,  has  courage,  competence,  and  a  great  cause  to  impel  his 
fame  far  into  the  future. 

Gen.  James  B.  Weaver's  arrival  for  a  speech  in  our  town  was 
somewhat  suggestive  of  circtfs  day.  What  of  Ex-Congressman 
Weaver  ?  Pictures  on  the  bill-boards,  large  and  artistic,  and  well 
tinted,  have  invited  the  people  to  come  and  hear  their  servant's 
execrations  of  monopolies,  and  behold  a  spectacle  of  rivals  laid 
low,  even  biting  political  dust.  Up  to  the  Waterloo  defeat  of 
1888,  opera  houses  were  too  narrow  for  his  admiring  crowds,  and 
the  curious  opposers  relished  extravagant  assertion,  illustrated 
with  story  and  eloquent  periods.  Never  dull  in  mimicry,  vivacious 
even  in  wordy  platitudes,  he  had  captured  a  district.  General 


254  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

Weaver  was  short  a  few  votes,  and  charged  a  betrayal  in  the  nom 
ination  for  governor  by  republicans.  Never  daunted,  a  soldier, 
temperance  advocate,  an  incessant  laborer  with  an  instrument 
never  dulled  by  use,  only  by  age,  it  was  easy  to  champion  the  peo 
ple  vs.  banks,  and  the  like.  A  wit  of  celebrity,  asked  if  he  finished 
three  bottles  of  porb  without  assistance,  replied,  "  I  had  the  assist 
ance  of  a  bottle  of  Madeira."  The  general  in  like  manner  could 
answer,  "I  had,  besides  favorite  allies  —  my  bottles  of  port — the 
assistance  of  a  bottle  of  Madeira  —  the  democrats." 

GENERAL    BAKER. 

Iowa  citizens  in  a  further  mention  will  include  some  of  our 
generals — among  them  Adjutant-General  N.  B.  Baker.  He  came 
to  Iowa,  after  having  been  elected  speaker  of  the  House  of  Eepre- 
sentatives  and  governor  of  New  Hampshire.  Here  he  was  a  mem 
ber  of  the  war  legislature,  first  in  loyalty  as  a  Douglas  democrat, 
and,  with  able  executive  gifts,  was  called  to  the  post  of  organizer 
of  war  troops,  to  earn  a  warm  place  as  an  officer,  prompt,  generous 
and  sagacious  reader  of  men.  His  official  life  was  a  model  of  ser 
vice,  untiring  up  to  his  sad  demise.  For  him  the  state  mourned — 
a  genius  in  execution,  a  leader  of  patriot  hearts  in  our  darkest 
hours. 

Major-General  John  M.  Corse,  now  postmaster  of  Boston,  is  a 
conspicuous  human  Iowa  product,  the  son  of  a  reputable  book  pub 
lisher  of  Burlington.  Beginning  his  military  career  as  major,  he 
Irose  to  the  honor  of  a  general's  command  of  a  division,  only  by 
such  aids  as  gallantry  could  reinforce  in  a  soldier  of  resource  and 
the  dash  of  a  born  leader.  To  the  rear  he  never  went,  but  was 
borne  from  the  field  with  wounds  supposed  to  be  mortal.  I  take 
pleasure  in  private  chats  in  his  Boston  office,  where  order  reigns, 
showing  that  progress  in  methods  for  the  public  weal  which  distin 
guished  this  civilian.  His  war  despatches  had  not  a  Pope  flavor, 
but  exhibited  such  qualities  that,  if  the  war  had  been  prolonged, 
his  dash,  which  had  attracted  his  superiors,  would  have  made  him 
even  a  more  conspicuous  hero  among  veteran  heroes.  In  Boston 
he  has  a  welcome  in  society  where  the  family  of  Ex-President 
Pierce,  with  whom  he  is  in  alliance  by  marriage,  were  favorites. 

Gen.  J.  M.  Tuttle,  leaving  the  boat  at  Keokuk  as  a  survivor  of 
Port  Donelson,  I  had  the  honor  of  aiding  to  the  cars,  everywhere 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  255 

welcomed  a  hero.     To  the  head  of  the  G.  A.  K..  iu  Iowa,  he  rose  as 
ft  fighting  rather  than  a  boisterous  patriot. 

MAJOR-GENERAL    SAMUEL    R.    CURTIS. 

He  furnishes  a  fitting  head-line  to  emblazon  Iowa  by  her  sons 
in  the  late  civil  war.  Educated  at  West  Point,  serving  in  Iowa  as 
a  civil  engineer,  and  evincing  a  public  spirit  to  win  respect,  even 
admiration,  he  became  twice  a  representative  of  one  half  the  state 
in  Congress. 

By  nature  of  a  heavy  mould,  conservative  by  association,  it  was 
not  easy  in  the  political  canvass  for  him  to  anticipate  the  crisis  of 
rebellion,  even  as  late  as  1860.  The  gun  at  Fort  Sumter  startled 
him,  and,  while  holding  high  rank  as  a  legislator,  he  resigned  for 
the  field,  leaving  the  championship  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad 
to  others,  who  had  less  zeal  and  engineering  knowledge.  He  had 
served  in  Mexico,  being  colonel  of  an  Ohio  regiment  in  1847.  He 
was  chosen  colonel  of  the  Second  Iowa  Infantry,  and  earliest  in 
the  field  winning  the  first  star  accorded  to  an  Iowa  officer,  achiev 
ing  at  the  battle  of  Pea  Eidge  like  distinction.  This  battle  was  a 
memorable  occasion  to  test  the  skill  of  our  officers,  and  in  proof 
that  there  was  iron  in  the  blood  of  our  soldiers. 

At  St.  Louis  he  was  given  command  in  a  day  of  spies,  more  to 
be  dreaded  than  open  foes.  The  frontier  was  his  home,  and  the 
department  of  Kansas  gave  him  at  Fort  Leavenvvorth  the  rest  he 
needed,  still  hoping  for  a  part  in  the  colossal  schemes  of  internal 
improvements  of  the  West.  Early  his  career  was  ended,  poor  in 
purse,  but  rich  in  honors  well  won.  Time  will  not  dim  his  mem 
ory  in  my  mind  who  knew  him  a  guest,  friend,  and  a  man  of  emi 
nent  public  spirit.  It  is  a  wide  opinion  that  he  died  poor,  yet  the 
family  have,  like  his  state,  a  goodly  heritage  in  a  patriot's  career. 

MAJOR-GENERAL    G.    M.    DODGE. 

There  is  a  peculiarly  appreciative  and  able  sketch  of  this  gen 
tleman  by  Colonel  Byers  in  that  standard  volume,  "Iowa  in  War 
Times  ".  It  is  an  artistic  outline  picture,  but  not  too  brilliant  for 
the  deeds  which  emblazon  the  man.  I  knew  him  thirty-five  years 
before  he  was  a  general,  railway  magnate,  builder  and  capitalist. 
He  was  a  protege  of  Henry  Farnam,  the  builder  of  our  Rock  Island 


256  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

road,  he,  or  his  brother,  N.  P.  Dodge,  having  the  honor  of  setting 
the  red  flag  as  a  surveyor  on  the  summit  line,  a  stone's  throw  from 
our  window  where  I  write.  To  give  the  incidents  and  name  the 
steps  upward  in  his  career  would  be  a  long,  often-told  and  adven 
turous  story.  The  boy  must  have  been  restless,  if  "the  child  is 
father  of  the  man".  He  was  at  the  Vermont  Military  School,  the 
nurse  of  patriots  unlike  the  Confederate  brood  of  full-grown  West 
Pointers,  only  nurtured  to  sting  the  old  mother  who  had  fed  and 
clothed  them.  The  war  found  plain  Mr.  -Dodge  the  animating 
spirit  in  making  a  city  of  Council  Bluffs,  and  the  soul  of  honor 
joined  to  wisdom  which  made  him  the  counsellor  of  capitalists  and 
the  confidant  of  learned  engineers.  The  organization  of  the  Fourth 
Infantry  which  he  led  as  colonel,  was  not  earlier  in  time  than 
effective  in  service,  choosing  a  martial  band  in  our  little  city  of 
Grinnell,  which  he  as  commander  would  have,  if  maintained  from 
his  not  then  over-pletheric  purse.  Did  he  save  the  battle  of  Pea 
Ridge  ?  That  is  the  military  verdict.  Was  he  the  greatest  adept 
of  the  time  in  destroying  the  railroads  of  the  enemy,  and  building 
our  own  lines  and  bridges?  This  is  accorded  by  even  jealous  West 
Point  rivals.  Did  the  first  wound  retire  him  from  the  field,  the 
second  blanch  his  courage  as  well  as  his  face,  or  the  third,  maiming 
for  life,  dampen  his  ardor  ?  Never.  And  it  was  this  with  a  thou 
sand  minor  achievements  which  earned  the  compliments  of  General 
Sherman  without  reserve,  and  inspired  the  confidence  of  Grant, 
who  urged  in  vain  the  removal  of  General  Bosecrans  and  the  sub 
stitution  of  Dodge.  On  Grant's  choice  General  Dodge  could  have 
been  at  the  head  of  the  war  department,  but  ill  health  and  busi 
ness  forbade  the  sacrifice. 

In  1864  we  find  the  soldier  of  Iowa  nominated  for  Congress 
over  a  most  gifted  civilian,  and  elected  amidst  a  chorus  of  shout 
ing.  He  declined  a  second  election,  and  I  think  this  was  his  first 
and  last  office  held  in  the  civil  list.  Why  ?  I  heard  him  mention 
the  duties  of  errand  boy  in  Washington  with  only  less  disgust  than 
his  weariness  in  listening  to  political  platitudes.  He  had  enough 
of  battles,  but  could  with  pleasure  gaze  on  his  pictured  walls,  with 
such  paintings  as  "Johnnie  coming  marching  home",  in  a  gallery 
and  art  collection  which  his  wife  freely  loaned  in  aid  of  charity 
and  for  the  culture  of  citizens  at  his  home. 

Facile  locomotion  and  development  of  the  country  by  railways 
has  been  an  engrossing  labor  and  ruling  passion.  For  years  he 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  257 

has  been  a  director  of  the  great  Union  Pacific  Railway  system,  and 
one  of  its  ablest  counsellors.  He  is  credited  with  projection  and 
control  of  great  southern  and  western  lines,  like  that  from  Denver 
south,  interstate  and  international  in  relation.  With  our  greatest 
capitalists  he  dines  and  counsels,  and  that  he  pauses  to  aid  our 
Iowa  College  by  a  thousand-dollar  gift  confirms  my  regard  for  him 
as  a  friend. 

GEN.    J.     M.    CROCKEK. 

General  Crocker,  of  Des  Moines,  I  knew  as  having  the  glamour 
of  a  story-teller  and  the  adroitness  of  a  criminal  circuit  lawyer. 
He  was  a  West  Point  graduate,  and  events  indicated  that  he  had 
found  his  place  in  leading  and  inspiring  our  soldiers.  He  was  the 
choice  of  our  great  captain  for  the  command  which  embraced  the 
Crocker  brigade.  Though  reared  a  democrat,  there  was  no  ques 
tion  that  he  was  for  the  war  without  an  if,  or  reserve.  A  lung 
malady  developed  after  brilliant  service,  and  he  returned  to  Des 
Moines  on  a  furlough.  His  nature  forbade  rest,  and  a  suggestion 
was  made  that  he  could  be  nominated  for  governor  in  the  repub 
lican  convention  by  acclamation.  To  all  this  he  was  deaf.  "  I  am 
in  for  the  field  at  the  earliest  day,  and  nothing  can  tempt  me  into 
politics  while  the  war  is  on." 

How  deafening  the  cheers  as  he  quietly  entered  the  convention, 
pale,  and  with  feeble  lung  power  tested  when  called  on  for  a 
speech.  It  was  courageous  in  tone  and  adroit  as  patriotic.  "  Do  I 
look  in  the  eyes  of  a  fire-in-the-rear  democrat  ?  God  forbid  !  they 
are  more  dangerous  than  rebels  in  front.  I  am  not  fighting  to  save 
slavery  and  democracy.  One  is  about  dead,  and  —  well  you  know 
how  our  old  party  can  be  damned.  Fill  up  the  ranks.  Belch  out 
the  shot  and  shell,  which  the  masked  incarnate  devils  must  have. 
Read  Douglas*  immortal  farewell,  you  democrats,  and  if  you  must 
take  a  glass — I  have  to  indulge  a  little  for  throat  trouble  [great 
cheers]  —  drink  to  the  health  of  Grant,  an  old  democrat,  now  the 
patriot's  pride,  organizing  victory."  With  a  twinkle  of  the  eye  he 
said,  "  I  cannot  tell  a  story,  but  in  a  poetical  line  I  can  give  the 
epitaph  of  democrats  weak  in  back  and  black  at  heart.  Down  in 
Keokuk  county  a  widow  had  no  earthly  possessions  but  a  pet  pig. 
It  died,  and  the  emotional  lady  had  the  animal  buried,  and  I,  a 
youngster,  gave  the  epitaph.  I  can  in  my  manhood  give  it  for  every 


258  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOliTY   YEAES. 

halting  sick  patriot,  and  for  democracy,  if  it  leaves  its  colors  in 
1863.  This  for  the  pig  : 

"  While  I  lived  I  lived  in  clover, 
When  I  died  I  died  all  over." 

It  is  long  since  we  bade  farewell  to  the  hero  seeking  health,  as 
an  official  in  New  Mexico,  and  ending  his  life  in  Washington,  in 
1865. 

MAJOR-GENERAL    WILLIAM    W.    BELKNAP. 

well  earned  his  rank,  and  by  an  army  address  of  high  tone  and 
eloquence  captivated  President  Grant,  who  made  him  Secretary 
of  War.  That  he  was  under  a  temporary  cloud  by  the  acts  of 
another,  nameless,  does  not  debar  my  tribute  to  an  officer  who 
served  his  country  with  a  devotion  that  reflected  the  highest 
honor  on  his  state,  which  took  pride  in  his  service  and  rising  for 
tunes  at  the  national  capitol.  In  the  autumn  of  1890  he  was 
called  hence. 

GOVERNORS. 

Iowa  has  seven  living  ex-governors,  all  of  whom  it  has  been  my 
privilege  to  know,  and  to  receive  at  their  hands  official  compli 
ments.  To  be  blind  to  their  foibles  was  a  study,  an  occasion  for 
sharp  criticisn  not  having  arisen.  I  can  hope  that  the  time  for 
mortuary  praise  is  far  in  the  future.  Hon.  Ralph  P.  Lowe,  of 
Keokuk,  the  deceased  chief  justice,  had  a  personality  to  endure 
every  test  that  could  be  applied,  and  the  firm,  triumphant  faith  of 
a  patriot  and  a  Christian. 

GOV.    JAMES    W.    GRIMES. 

Deceased  in  1872,  he  was  a  half  century  ago  territorial  legisla 
tor.  Then  he,  governor  for  two  terms,  and  twice  elected  United 
States  senator,  resigned  to  escape  from  duties  which  it  was  feared 
would  bring  011  a  disease  premonitory  of  certain  death.  His  mental 
and  social  endowments  and  characteristics  I  have  mentioned  in  the 
chapter  on  reconstruction,  and  only  add  that  in  public  service  he 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YE  Alt  8.  259 

was  conspicuous  for  tact  and  power  in  a  minority;  for  political 
combinations  which  made  him  governor,  after  the  most  earnest  and 
eloquent  state  canvass  in  our  annals  ;  a  free  school  law  for  this  state 
found  in  him  a  friend,  while  the  state  and  sovereignty  which  would 
allow  the  assassins  of  liberty  to  cross  our  territory  to  enslave 
Kansas  found  in  him  an  enemy.  The  navy  became  not  a  hobby, 
but  engaged  his  deep  interest  as  a  patriot ;  while  during  the  war 
era  at  the  head  of  the  senate  committee,  he  became  the  counsellor 
and  confidant  of  admirals.  He,  with  personal  grief,  voted  against 
the  majority  of  his  party  on  the  impeachment  of  Andrew  Johnson, 
which  act  illustrated  his  forecast  and  independence  as  a  statesman. 
Mr.  Grimes  sprang  early  into  favor  with  agriculturists  as  a 
writer,  and  was  a  large  land  owner  of  soil,  rich  in  contrast  with 
that  of  his  native  New  Hampshire.  He  first  came  on  the  emigra 
tion  wave  to  the  city  of  Burlington,  where  he  now  lies  buried.  By 
sagacious  investment  he  attained  large  wealth.  He  left  a  tract  of 
land  to  Iowa  College,  and  a  library  to  his  city,  but  his  greatest 
legacies  were  his  life  and  character,  described  in  Dr.  Salter's 
memoir,  and  which  will  enrich  Iowa's  history  when  a  volume 
worthy  of  its  men  is  written. 

GOV.    SAMUEL    J.    KIKKWOOD, 

State  and  United  States  senator,  and  twice  governor,  was  cabinet 
officer  under  the  lamented  Garfield,  on  whose  death  he  retired  to 
private  life  in  Iowa  City,  now  nearing  seventy-six  years.  Eadicals 
have  ever  been  hospitable  to  "born  democrats",  and  the  "plough 
handle"  candidate  was  one;  and  he  was  fortunate  and  strong  in 
free  soil  allegiance  as  to  time,  and  the  strong  and  vigilant  support 
of  Ex-Senator  Ezekiel  Clark,  his  relative  and  business  partner, 
with  the  will  and  skill  of  a  political  genius.  Mr.  Kirkwood  was 
never  a  favorite  in  the  religious  circles,  though  indicting  the  most 
religious,  orthodox  messages,  nor  with  the  clans  that  were  tolerant 
of  the  saloon  in  the  state  or  nation.  Of  a  kindly  heart,  he  was  not 
wanting  on  occasion  in  combative  force.  A  war  governor  had 
opportunities,  and  Kirkwood  well  improved  them,  and  later  kept 
in  sympathy  with  the  agricultural  masses,  before  whom  for  years 
he  has  been  a  plain  but  favorite  speaker  in  championship  of  econ 
omy,  higher  education  and  the  policy  of  a  tariff.  With  a  tempera 
ment  seeking  ease  rather  than  the  theatre  of  adventure,  or  the 


260  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

mingling  in  political  strifes,  he  will  be  held  in  esteem  for  sturdy 
honesty  as  an  official,  and  a  calm,  clear  perception  of  duty,  not  less 
than  for  eminent  patriotic  service  as  our  state  executive  in  perilous 
times  when  home  traitors  were  in  ambush,  held  by  unseen  links 
and  oaths  to  the  Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle,  one  of  the  most 
dangerous  organizations  of  the  century. 

GOV.    WILLIAM    M.    STONE. 

G-overnor  Stone  was  district  judge  in  the  war  era,  and 
resigned  for  the  military  service  as  major,  until  appointed  colonel 
of  the  Twenty-second  Iowa  infantry.  In  charge  of  a  brigade  he 
was  wounded  in  the  arm,  and  when  on  a  furlough  was  tempted  into 
the  political  arena,  seeking  a  nomination  as  the  successor  of  Kirk- 
wood,  and  having  rivals  in  the  astute  politician  who  was  secretary 
of  state,  and  the  brilliant  Fitz  Henry  Warren.  After  a  most  excit 
ing  struggle,  in  which  Warren  showed  the  greatest  magnanimity, 
Colonel  Stone  was  nominated. 

The  cool  home  critics  of  one  who  left  the  field  of  danger  for 
civic  honors,  came  into  line  under  the  dashing  canvass  of  one  so 
effective  in  jeering  copperheads  and  eloquent  in  appeal  to  patriots. 
The  loyalty  shown  by  the  soldier  vote  was  also  in  high  compli 
ment  of  a  gentleman  who  as  executive  never  forgot  his  army  com 
rades,  and  in  private  life  has  merited  the  favor  of  pensioners,  his 
later  acts  supplementing  his  liberal  policy  as  state  executive. 
More  of  an  orator  than  a  financier,  he  has,  under  President  Harri 
son,  won  an  appointment  as  first  assistant  officer  in  the  national 
land  department,  where  great  cases  will  have  a  fair  hearing  by  an 
intelligent  and  upright  officer. 

GOV.    SAMUEL    MERRILL. 

Governor  Merrill  was  a  state  representative  and  a  merchant  of 
McGregor,  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War.  Business  was 
dropped  cheerfully  and  he  bade  adieu  to  home  on  accepting  the 
colonelcy  of  the  Twenty-first  Iowa,  a  regiment  noted  for  gallantry 
alike  with  its  commander.  He  was  supposed  to  be  mortally 
wounded  at  the  battle  of  Black  Elver  Bridge,  where  he  gained  the 
warm  praise  of  General  Carr  "as  the  first  in  battle  and  the  last 
to  leave  the  field  ".  From  the  rebel  rain  of  lead  and  iron  shot  he 


EEMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY  YEAES.  261 

never  recovered,  and  passes  a  well-earned  pension,  it  is  said,  over  to 
the  poor  in  the  city  where  he  prospered  and  the  capitol  of  a  state 
delighting  to  do  him  honor.  It  is  only  an  incident  that  I  had  a  few 
hundred  votes  in  the  convention,  but  felicitate  myself  not  only  on 
making  his  nomination  unanimous,  but  in  loyalty  to  a  business  cit 
izen  and  worthy  official. 

In  a  broad  view  of  our  wants  as  a  state,  he  laid  the  corner-stone 
of  our  new  state  capitol  and  was  liberal  in  plans  to  encourage  pub 
lic  improvements  by  the  enlistment  of  capital.  State  institutions 
were  especially  befriended,  and  his  gifts  in  advancing  higher  edu 
cation  were  many  and  liberal,  culminating  in  the  endowment  of 
a  professorship  in  Iowa  College  ($20,000),  of  which  institution  he 
was  a  trustee.  His  success  as  a  bank  president  and  in  railway  enter 
prises  were  in  entire  accord  with  his  well  known  probity  and 
forecast.  Ill  health  in  his  family  led  to  enforced  removal  to  Cali 
fornia,  where  his  wife  died.  His  enlistment  in  business  schemes 
there,  it  is  hoped,  require  only  a  temporary  absence  from  a  people 
only  less  profuse  in  honors  than  hearty  in  wish  for  his  permanent 
abode  on  our  soil. 

GOV.    C.    C.    CARPENTER. 

As  register  of  the  state  land  office  after  the  close  of  the  war, 
Colonel  Carpenter  was  a  resident  of  Fort  Dodge.  It  is  not  an 
assumption  that  because  he  had  a  morbid  dislike  of  the  smell  of 
gunpowder,  he  became  a  commissary  of  subsistence.  General 
Logan  sought  out  the  wide-awake  officer  of  probity,  to  render  ser 
vice  of  more  value  in  an  emergency  than  that  of  a  field  marshal. 

In  1871  the  repute  of  a  wise  legislator  and  faithful  staff  officer 
in  the  field,  taken  with  the  vocation  of  a  farmer,  not  a  trivial  cir 
cumstance  in  political  slate  construction,  smoothed  the  road  to  a 
nomination  to  governorship  in  easy  transition,  and  an  election  even 
more  facile. 

We  meet  him  as  an  officer  and  cattle  superintendent  at  our 
state  fairs,  where,  I  have  little  doubt,  the  smell  of  the  breath  of 
our  fancy  bovines  is  more  welcome  than  the  fumes  of  alcohol  and 
the  jostle  of  political  caucuses.  One  of  the  most  forcible  of  our 
public  speakers,  rendering  good  service  in  Congress,  he  has  by  his 
address  on  "  The  Skeleton  in  the  Corncrib  ",  stimulated  farmers  to 
adopt  high  feeding  to  condense  values,  at  the  same  time  encourag- 


262  REMINISCENCES  OF  FOETY    TEARS. 

ing  domestic  exchanges  in  the  line  of  our  farmers'  policy  and  road 
to  wealth. 

GOV.    JOHN    H.    GEAE. 

Honored  as  mayor  of  the  city,  a  wholesale  merchant  and  state 
legislator,  rising  to  the  speakership,  Mr.  Gear's  election  as  gov 
ernor  broke  the  royal  military  line  of  governors.  Fort  Snelling 
was  a  military  post  on  the  Mississippi,  where,  as  a  son  of  a  post 
chaplain,  he  was  born.  He  figured  as  a  manufacturer,  and  served 
on  the  ways  and  means  committee  in  Congress,  but  he  has  gone 
into  retirement  temporarily,  with  others,  whose  offense  in  support 
ing  the  McKinley  tariff  bill  is  yet  to  be  held  as  a  high  honor. 

GOV.    BUREN    R.    SHERMAN. 

In  ante  bellum  days,  he  was  a  county  official,  but  left  all  to 
graduate  from  the  army  with  honorable  life  scars,  earning  promo 
tion  by  the  lead  yet  corroding  in  his  person.  He  was  often  in  the 
range  of  the  fire  of  our  foe.  "He  was  shot  nearly  to  pieces,"  says 
Byers,  "at  the  battle  of  Shiloh." 

The  repute  of  an  able  orator  placed  him  at  the  head  of  a  party, 
chastened  by  divisions  incident  to  great  majorities.  Corporate 
bodies  meant  domination  to  be  met,  bringing  the  baptism  of  fire  in 
another  sense,  when  he  found  it  true  that  "a  man's  foes  shall  be 
those  of  his  own  household  ". 

The  public  needs  of  our  unfortunate  and  dependent  classes 
touched  to  move  a  sensitive  nature.  In  the  line  of  public  service 
the  governor  became  an  open  and  brave  advocate  for  the  prohibi 
tion  amendment  of  1882.  His  ear  was  never  dull  to  entreaty,  nor 
his  purse  closed  to  charity,  and  at  the  end  of  his  term  of  office  he 
was  found  poor  in  all  save  the  priceless  tributes  to  his  fidelity,  his 
eloquence  as  a  debater,  patriotic  pride  in  his  state,  and  love  for  our 
national  defenders. 

GOV.    WILLIAM    J.    LARRABEE, 

A  native  of  Connecticut,  of  quiet  tastes,  a  sagacious  financier  and 
of  long  legislative  experience,  might  be  expected  to  be  conserva 
tive.  No  predecessor  was  better  equipped  for  a  successful  admin- 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  263 

istration,  and  to  Governor  Larrabee's  credit  stands  a  repute  for 
the  closest  attention  of  a  financier,  and  an  unbending  purpose  to 
promote  the  public  weal.  The  saloons  will  never  forgive  his  proph 
ecy  that  they  can  never  again  have  legal  toleration  in  Iowa.  Exec 
utive  documents  and  official  declarations  in  favor  of  upholding  our 
prohibitory  enactment,  have  sent  out  a  swarm  of  peripatetic  revil- 
ers,  stimulated  by  the  flask  and  assisted  in  the  pouring  out  of  vials 
of  wrath  by  even  the  sordid  employer  across  state  lines.  Whatever 
the  issue,  it  will  be  found  that  the  chair  of  state  was  filled  with 
rare  personality. 

Factions  on  the  transportation  question  there  were.  They  are 
not  now  in  array  for  criticism ;  the  pipe  of  peace  should  be  smoked. 
If  the  flames  of  strife  were  fanned  by  honest  or  by  designing  men, 
the  former  as  lovers  of  comity  were  too  seldom  united,  and  a  suc 
cessor  governor  reaps  where  he  had  not  sown.  Dr.  Johnson  said, 
"Where  you  undertake  to  kill,  let  it  be  only  your  enemies.'7  Scat 
tering  fire  often  sends  the  most  fatal  shots.  Reproaches  for  this 
political  result  will  be  hushed,  before  the  untarnished  fame  of  a 
state  with  high  credit  and  no  debt,  and  with  no  scandals,  even  in  a^ 
whisper,  and  with  hearty  encomiums  for  the  fidelity  and  courage 
of  the  farmer  governor. 

GEORGE    G.    WRIGHT,    OF    DES    MOINES. 

Nearing  seventy  years,  Judge  Wright  is  yet  young  in  spirit 
and  abounding  in  railway  service  and  local  financiering,  while 
maintaining  the  more  congenial  social  amenities  of  a  pioneer  glee 
ful  story-teller,  and  emotional  table  orator.  For  the  period  of  a 
generation  in  the  circles  of  farmers,  at  the  bar,  at  educational  and 
political  gatherings,  he  has  found  a  welcome.  For  epigrammatic 
taste,  exuberance  of  wit,  strong  Saxon,  apt  comparison  and  close 
logic,  while  devoid  of  limpid  fluency,  he  is  in  just  repute.  His  Bar 
address  just  delivered  before  the  jurists  in  national  convention  at 
Saratoga,  evinces  learning  and  fine  conception  as  a  lawyer  and 
statesman.  Few  have  had  like  rare  opportunities,  as  a  pioneer 
counsellor,  a  judge,  a  chief  justice,  wearing  the  unspotted  ermine 
long  years  until  called  to  be  United  States  senator,  to  take  rank  with 
a  deceased  brother,  statesman  and  diplomat,  Joseph  Wright.  As 
senatorial  candidate,  he  had  but  to  intimate,  and  troops  of  friends 
made  his  cause  their  care.  The  acceptance  was  by  some  deemed 


264  REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY  YEARS. 

ill-timed  in  view  of  his  adherence  to  a  pledge  to  the  American  pol 
icy  learned  in  the  school  of  Clay,  but  time  has  justified  his  educa 
tional  speeches  and  persistent  voting  for  a  protective  tariff. 

OTHER    LAWYERS. 

Judge  C.  C.  Kourse  and  N.  W.  Hubbard  are  gentlemen  of 
fame,  not  finding  congenial  duties  at  the  bench  but  at  the  bar.  In 
this  forum  there  is  found  the  play  of  exuberant  fancy  in  wit, 
which,  added  to  legal  learning  and  oratorical  gifts,  have  brought 
large  fees  and  honorable  successes.  Judge  Hubbard,  before  in  the 
employ  as  solicitor  of  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern  E-ailway  Co., 
gave  one  of  the  grandest  philippics  against  the  saloon  on  record; 
and  Judge  Nourse,  often  and  by  choice  an  anti-corporation  lawyer, 
has  been  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  a  standard  prohibition  orator 
with  a  national  fame.  Both  gentlemen  have  written  in  a  grace 
ful,  eulogistic  style  of  our  state  and  her  people,  on  many  occa 
sions,  and  were  often  famous  dinner  speakers  and  orators  for  set 
occasions.  I  think  the  twain  owe  more  to  native  than  to  cultivated 
resources.  They  are  witty  and  wise,  which  is  better  than  to  be 
otherwise,  for  thereby  has  come  employment  and  competence  as  sol 
ace  in  life's  evening.  With  Judge  Nourse  there  is  an  anticipatory 
gleam  before  the  explosive  speech,  but  none  the  less  spontaneous. 
Judge  Hubbard  lightens  unexpectedly,  without  an  intimation  of 
the  pun  or  merry  puncture  which  brings  the  laugh  in  or  out  of 
order. 

OUR    FEDERAL    JUDGES. 

Our  state  is  not  of  an  age  to  boast  of  many  jurists  and  officials 
"to  the  manor  born".  Justice  Samuel  E.  Miller,  born  in  Ken 
tucky,  after  thirty  years'  service,  has  reached  an  age  to  retire  with 
a  claim  on  the  nation's  exchequer  and  the  people's  benediction  of 
"well  done".  He  belongs  to  Iowa,  for  here  he  practiced  law,  and 
from  the  state  bar  he  rose  to  the  bench  (though  originally  by 
profession  a  physician),  to  attain  a  peership  among  judges  —  an 
eminence  traced  to  a  high  order  of  gifts,  industry  and  well- 
grounded  opinions. 

On  his  western  circuit  I  had  occasion  to  study  the  judge,  and 
observed  how  impatient  he  was  with  showy-talking  lawyers,  and 
how  great  his  aversion  to  shams.  The  stuffed  advocate  he  first 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETT   YEARS.  265 

took  from  his  base  as  a  child  takes  up  a  doll,  and  then  shook  the 
bran  out  of  him.  He  placed  men  on  the  rack  by  an  inquiry.  So 
fearful  was  a  nervous  lawyer  about  to  open  a  case,  that  he  said 
there  was  clear  sailing  if  Miller  did  not  ask  him  a  question.  There 
was  a  scowl  until  the  point  of  the  case  was  in  bold  relief,  and  ver 
bal  repetitions  only  brought  nervous  unrest,  while  many  of  the 
brothers  in  gown  slept  in  unconcern. 

In  paying  my  regards  as  a  citizen,  I  was  conducted  into  a  work 
shop  of  the  judge,  where  piles  of  volumes  and  legal  lore  in  tons 
avoirdupois  engaged  at  late  hours  the  servant  of  the  nation,  in  that 
new  era  of  jurisprudence  involved  in  acts  of  treason,  war  and  recon 
struction.  I  think  a  reporter  never  unlocked  him,  but  to  an  lowan 
he  was  frank  in  opinions.  I  could  mention  how  and  where  he 
would  have  been  in  a  collision  with  our  " Moses",  Andrew  Johnson. 
In  Grant's  sagacity  he  had  confidence.  If  he  holds  that  the  ex-sec 
retary  of  the  treasury  and  chief  justice,  Chase,  laid  the  country 
under  deep  obligation,  there  would  be  small  chance  of  dissent.  It 
was  an  honor  to  the  state  of  his  adoption  to  be  chosen  the  orator 
at  our  great  centennial  constitutional  convention  at  Philadelphia. 
Does  it  lack  in  a  popular  style  of  address,  it  is  yet  profound,  a  fit 
study  for  a  people,  impatient  alike  with  quotation  and  declamation. 
Master  of  the  instrument  he  so  faithfully  expounded,  it  detracts 
nothing  from  his  fame  that  he  enlarged  on  Iowa  details,  while  set 
ting  the  state  in  a  picture  that  shows  him  an  artist  in  eulogy.  To 
him  a  high  niche  is  assured. 

Judge  John  F.  Dillon  was  early  an  orphan,  but  grew  on  our 
soil  in  the  mould  of  a  true  gentleman.  With  limited  literary 
advantages  in  youth,  he  was  a  student  of  books  while  winning  the 
honor  of  men  full  of  business,  and  ready  to  confide  and  extol  a 
promising  legal  light.  This  was  the  firm  of  Cook  &  Sergent.  Mr. 
Dillon  was  eminently  social,  but  neither  friendship  nor  sympathy 
warped  his  judgment  in  the  interpretation  of  laws  while  a  practi 
tioner  or  subsequently.  He  early  received  local  judicial  honors, 
then  the  seat  of  a  chief  justice  by  a  popular  vote,  later  a  Federal 
appointment  in  a  district  embracing  many  states,  loyal,  semi-loyal 
and  one  a  traitor  to  the  flag.  His  office  was  far  from  a  sinecure, 
and  gave  occasion  for  study  in  solving  new  points  of  law,  involving 
great  principles  and  vast  sums.  Litigants  in  their  impatience  and 
anger  could  not  move  one  who  found,  like  the  great  English  jurist, 
"popularity  which  follows,  rather  than  that  which  is  run  after". 


266  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

To  a  relative  his  decisions  seemed  in  corporate  matters  too  impar 
tial  if  not  cruel,  but  it  was  this  evidence  of  the  strictest  judicial 
integrity  which  later  brought  large  gains  and  honors  well  known  to 
the  legal  profession. 

Great  industry,  combined  with  literary  taste,  early  brought  him 
into  notice  as  a  publicist  and  author — the  work  on  municipal  cor 
porations  being  a  standard  authority  not  only  in  the  West,  but 
found  on  the  desks  of  our  ablest  jurists  everywhere. 

In  the  chapter  on  railroads  I  have  narrated  how  Judge  Dillon 
was  called  from  Iowa.  Friends  at  the  bar  parted  with  him  reluc 
tantly,  as  did  the  state  with  reluctant  adieu.  His  law  lectures 
found  in  the  students  of  Columbia  College  eager  listeners,  appreci 
ating  literary  finish,  and  high  tone  on  questions  of  corporate  and 
national  obligations.  But  he  was  soon  allured  from  the  college 
to  be  the  chief  counsel  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway,  and  later  add 
ing  the  duties  of  an  attorney  for  the  railway  magnate  of  the 
age  —  Jay  Gould.  Mr.  Dillon  is  welcome  to  the  best  literary  and 
social  circles  of  the  great  city.  He  is  well  conditioned  at  sixty, 
with  a  competence  and  that  content  found  in  professional  eminence. 

Judge  James  M.  Love  was  a  resident  of  Keokuk,  the  abode  of 
not  a  few  famed  citizens.  It  has  furnished  in  my  time  a  congress 
man,  United  States  senator,  two  cabinet  ministers,  and  three 
judges  with  national  fame,  besides  eminent  army  officers.  Judge 
Love  was  a  democrat  before  the  war  era,  known  to  me  as  a  partisan 
state  senator,  and  for  the  life  of  a  generation  a  non-partisan  jurist. 
It  is  the  fact  that  no  suitor  or  counsel  could  wish  a  change  of 
venue  on  the  ground  of  prejudice,  and  as  true  that  no  suitor  feared 
that  politics  would  occasion  a  bias  in  a  trial.  A  kind  heart  exe 
crated  the  proposed  indictment  for  crime  of  one  who  had  the  stare 
of  a  lunatic.  Judge  Love's  consideration  for  young  practition 
ers  won  life-long  friendships.  He  was  a  patient  listener  on  grave 
criminal  trials,  and  begot  the  respect  even  of  the  guilty  receiving 
a  meted  sentence. 

A  southerner  might  have  been  extreme  as  a  state-rights  theo 
rist.  Principle  was  shown  in  his  regard  for  the  opinions  of  our 
state  court.  Thus  there  has  been  observed  a  pleasant  comity  and 
harmony  of  Federal  and  state  courts  so  honorable  to  each.  The 
state  retains  him  at  the  University  Law  School  as  a  lecturer. 
Clear  in  statement,  an  oracle,  and  genial,  he  charms  with  his  schol 
arship  shown  in  leading  cases  not  less  than  in  occasional  addresses, 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  267 

embellished  with  a  high  order  of  rhetoric.  It  is  high  compliment 
that  the  regard  in  which  he  is  held  as  a  citizen  is  only  exceeded  by 
so  wide  and  universal  esteem  that  nothing  save  party  edicts  has 
delayed  service  as  a  Federal  judge  beyond  the  boundary  of  state 
lines. 

Hon.  George  W.  McCrary  is  another  jurist,  hailing  from  Keo- 
kuk,  who  claims  as  a  birthright  the  name  of  Hawkeye.  No  Iowa 
citizen  has  passed  to  eminence  on  more  varied  rounds  of  service. 
A  state  representative,  repeatedly  a  member  of  Congress,  rising  to 
an  authority  and  authorship  on  elections.  Cabinet  minister  under 
President  Hayes  until  a  resignation  to  accept  a  circuit  judgeship  in 
place  of  Judge  Dillon,  he  vacated  the  office  for  the  lucrative  and 
responsible  duties  of  counsel  of  the  Atchison,  Topeka  and  Santa 
Fe  Railways.  Of  a  phlegmatic  temperament,  and  utterly  devoid  of 
show  in  manner,  of  pretence  in  his  profession,  he  became  a  univers 
ally  trusted  friend  and  a  safe  counsellor.  His  career  is  a  living 
refutation  of  the  opinion  that  in  the  wild  West  pretension  is  the 
only  road  to  success.  At  the  bar  his  subdued  voice  was  suggestive 
of  an  apology  for  an  appearance,  and  counsel  were  so  far  won  by 
his  urbanity  on  the  bench,  that  if  their  case  was  lost,  they  had  at 
least  made  a  sympathetic  friend.  In  great  contests  for  a  seat  in 
Congress  (often  provoking,  by  charges  of  fraud,  the  question  by 
Mr.  Stevens  before  a  vote,  "  Which  is  our  scoundrel  ?  ")  it  was  a 
remark,  "He  is  not  of  my  politics,  but  I  shall  shut  my  eyes  and 
follow  McCrary,  the  chairman."  Such  impressions,  begotten  by  a 
mild  eye,  clear  and  calm  statement,  gave  eminent  fitness  for  a  cor 
poration  lawyer.  Jurors  forgot  their,  prejudices  to  listen,  and 
judges  indulged  only  confidence  in  counsel  who  never  misled  by  an 
authority,  or  asked  a  verdict  on  trivial  technical  points  of  law. 

HON.    J.    K.    GRAVES. 

J.  K.  Graves,  a  resident  of  Dubuque,  has  just  passed  the  mile 
stone  of  a  half  century.  A  cheery  face  represents  a  brilliant  wit, 
great  enterprise  and  laudable  ambition.  He  was  not  a  soldier  in 
the  war  of  the  rebellion,  but  claimed  the  honor  of  cashing  drafts  to 
the  amount  of  thirty  thousand  dollars  to  clothe  our  volunteers, 
while  our  state  treasury  was  empty.  The  era  of  peace  found  him 
with  personal  engagements  and  business  associations,  but  attract 
ing  thousands  of  voters  to  make  him  a  radical  republican  senator 


268  REMINISCENCES  OF  FOETT   YEAES. 

from  a  democratic  district.  His  financial  career  may  not  be  one  of 
unvarying  good  fortune,  but  business  enterprise  in  his  own  city, 
liberality  with  a  plethoric  purse  in  removing  an  incubus  of  debt 
from  churches  in  his  city,  making  unasked  a  liberal  draft  to  a 
worn-down  educator,  Dr.  George  F.  Magoun,  bidding  him  travel  in 
foreign  lands — these  are  a  few  of  many  good  deeds  that  "shine  in 
a  naughty  world",  reflecting  the  nobility  of  manhood. 

HON.    D.    M.    MONINGER. 

Our  national  herding  domain  has  given  to  their  owners  the 
name  of  cattle  kings.  More  eminent  than  the  oriental  chiefs,  or 
cattle  barons  by  virtue  of  capital  and  enterprise  in  pre-occupancy, 
yet  they  are  quite  eclipsed  in  fame  by  that  princely  and  honored 
breeder  and  feeder,  Hon.  D.  M.  Moninger,  of  Galvin,  Iowa. 

It  is  a  day  of  specialists  and  noble  rivalries  when  a  showy  voca 
tion  awakens  admirers,  but  the  age  is  often  oblivious  to  the  claims 
of  heroes  in  humble  callings.  Years  and  sharp  rivalries  have  not 
left  out  from  bovine  literature  the  names  of  Booth  and  Bates  as 
benefactors,  by  their  skill  and  devotion  to  the  brute  related  to  the 
vocation  of  rural  life.  To  be  the  painter  of  an  animal  has  earned 
a  bestowment  of  medals  and  won  the  company  of  savants  and 
princes.  Should  not  the  rearing  of  fine  breeds  receive  honor? 
Iowa  has  a  citizen,  Moninger,  justly  the  rival  and  peer  of  cattle 
fanciers  in  the  new  and  old  world.  This  is  his  distinction  —  with 
out  a  great  cash  outlay,  or  wealth  gained  in  selling  bloods,  he 
becomes  an  educator  of  the  masses  by  his  prize  herd  of  steers  for 
beef,  and  points  the  way  where  the  farmers  may  follow,  not  by 
extolling  pedigree,  rather  by  the  animals  crossed  with  the  eye  of  an 
artist,  and  the  skill  of  a  breeder  and  care  of  a  feeder. 

Hon.  J.  D.  Gillet,  deceased,  of  Illinois,  the  great  feeder,  was  the 
exarnplar  by  his  stock  in  the  line  where  the  Iowa  pupil  surpasses 
his  master.  Together  they  had  aimed  to  establish  a  beef  breed,  as 
I  urged  years  ago,  but,  failing  of  the  money  in  that  venture,  there 
is  left  the  fame  founded  on  the  best  beef,  heaviest  weight  for  age, 
and  comeliest  animals  known  to  eye  tests,  butcher's  block  and  epi- 
curian  tastes.  Not  that  the  world-renowned  steer  bore  my  name, 
and  that  Presidents  have  dined  on  the  loin,  do  I  rejoice,  but  for  the 
elevation  of  agriculture  and  the  wealth  brought  by  patterns  of 
excellence.  The  modesty  and  integrity  of  Mr.  Moninger,  the  still 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETT    YEAE8.  269 

successful  breeder  for  the  millions,  I  cannot  fail  to  notice.  In  his 
home,  overlooking  the  Minerva  valley  of  corn  and  cattle,  there  is 
an  Iowa  gentleman  as  fortunate  in  competence  and  family  as  an 
honor  to  his  state  and  vocation  —  Moninger  of  the  short-horn  crim 
son  herd  —  a  patron  and  friend  of  Iowa  College,  and  high  on  the 
roll  of  her  rural  nobility. 

HON.    J.    B.    HOWELL,  OF  KEOKTJK, 

A  veteran  journalist,  filled  the  Grimes  senatorial  vacancy  with 
honor.  Appointed  later  a  judge  on  the  court  of  claims,  he  served 
for  years  with  fidelity  while  struggling  with  a  disease  that,  before 
advanced  years,  ended  the  life  of  a  courageous,  upright  and  able 
citizen  and  political  journalist. 

HON.    JAMES    W.    Me  DILL,    OF    CRESTON, 

held  a  short  senatorial  term  also,  having  been  for  years  familiar 
with  political  affairs  in  Washington  in  clerical  service.  On  return 
ing  to  Iowa,  he  became  a  judge  of  marked  ability.  For  years  he 
was  the  legal  member  of  the  Iowa  state  railway  commission,  and 
is  now  an  extensive  farmer,  with  a  law  practice  in  the  locality  from 
which  he  rose  to  the  stature  of  an  official  and  citizen  of  high 
repute. 

THE  LATE  HENRY  CLAY  DEAN. 

The  press  of  Iowa,  especially  the  State  Register,  has  spread  a 
beautiful  and  broad  mantle  of  charity  over  the  eventful  and  erratic 
career  of  Henry  Clay  Dean,  just  closed.  It  is  quite  a  safe  assump 
tion  that  he,  the  subject  of  unstinted  praise  as  an  orator  and  of 
merciless  satire  as  the  "great  unwashed",  would  have  prized  the 
elegant,  tender  tribute  of  Clarkson  ante  mortem,  more  than  now,  if 
in  that  sulphurous  abode  to  which  he  was  so  often  consigned  by 
the  free-hand  editorials  of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century. 

Preliminarily,  I  do  not  conceal  the  fact  of  an  intimacy  which 
grew  out  of  compliments  by  Dean  on  my  espousal  of  Greeley  for 
president  fifteen  years  ago.  Old  partisan  friends  found  no  words 
fitting  to  represent  a  republican  who  could  win  the  praise  of  so 
"unsavory  a  rebel".  This  moved  to  hearty  condolence  by  letters 


270  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

and  personal  visits,  and  though  unavailing  to  blunt  the  pen  of  par 
tisan  censors  it  caused  me  to  know  and  study  one  of  the  eccentric 
great  characters  of  our  time. 

Dean  died  last  month  at  Rebel  Cove,  Missouri,  a  name  of  his 
own  choice,  hardly  a  misnomer  in  the  light  of  personal  history. 
His  age  was  sixty-five  years.  The  public  has  little  knowledge  of 
his  life  in  a  Pennsylvania  cabin,  and  of  a  poor  family  imbibing  a 
slave-holding  spirit  from  Virginia  residents  on  the  border,  until  the 
flattery  for  the  inchoate  young  orator  bore  him,  in  1849,  on  the 
emigration  tide  to  the  then  new  state  of  Ohio.  Here  for  nearly 
forty  years  he  has  been  known — preacher,  politician,  publicist, 
farmer,  lecturer  and  lawyer.  Charity  often  brought  him  food,  and 
chance  occupation  and  residence,  until  called  by  Senators  Dodge 
and  Jones,  of  Iowa  (in  reward,  so  called,  for  political  service),  and 
the  warm  friendship  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  to  be  chaplain  of  the 
United  States  Senate.  The  honored  circuit  rider  did  not  lose  his 
balance;  adjusting  those  unkempt  locks  and  concealing  his  corn-cob 
pipe,  shedding  his  brown  shirt  and  patched  suit  of  jeans  for  a 
"splendid  fit"  by  a  Hebrew  certificate,  and  appearing  in  the  Sen 
ate,  he  was  less  a  boor  on  duty  than  he  had  been  heralded.  Moved 
to  compensate  by  utility  what  he  lacked  in  ornament  in  the  "  grand 
forum  ",  he  corrected  and  wrote  speeches  for  his  especial  political 
friends,  giving  some  verdure  to  the.  mental  wastes  of  mediocrities. 
Crowds  gathered  around  him,  wherever  chaplain  Dean  held  sway 
by  originality  in  caricature  and  manner  —  a  clerical  clown  burn 
ing  coarse  powder  in  pyrotechnic  displays  which  became  monoto 
nous.  But  the  Sunday  attendance  was  meager,  and  sparseness  of 
numbers  at  the  morning  prayer  made  the  service  almost  a  bur 
lesque.  This  I  remember  as  his  description  — "  The  vice-presi 
dent  dull  as  the  wooden  mace  he  used,  calling  to  order  a  straggling 
senator  or  two,  a  clerk  busy  fumbling  his  journal,  page  boys  beck 
oned  into  silence  by  the  door-keeper,  cloak  men  and  barbers  look 
ing  out  for  customers  and  quarters.  Oh,  what  a  crowd  to  make 
a  prayer  for!  A  creaking  heathen  prayer-mill  on  the  cupola 
would  have  been  as  serviceable  to  most  of  the  senators  as  the 
chaplain's  prayers."  So  he  stepped  down  from  the  marble  desk 
and  retired  to  his  Iowa  home,  to  find  that  he  was  less  than  a  god 
among  the  brethren  to  whom  he  had  sent  his  Parthian  arrows, 
and  in  disfavor  with  the  Bishop  whose  appointment  had  been 
declined. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOBTY   YEAES.  271 

From  this  time  we  date  his  career  of  bitterness  and  misan 
thropy.  Washington  society  was  hollow,  Iowa  was  fanatical,  his 
church  cowardly,  giving  the  "fine-haired  sprigs  of  divinity  a 
chance  to  scatter  the  good  congregations,  and  no  place  for  a  loyal 
democrat  but  on  Skunk  river  flats".  To  be  forgotten  was  dire 
punishment,  hell  itself.  To  escape  this  and  heal  the  wounds  of 
neglect,  and  also  to  repel  assaults,  he  wrote  for  the  press,  lectured, 
and  took  up  cases  in  court,  which  might  make  him  the  poor  man's 
advocate;  by  his  anathemas  he  would  be  the  terror  of  corpora 
tions;  and,  in  the  defense  of  the  Union,  receive  the  honors  of  a 
patriot.  The  flag  no  doubt  he  loved,  yet  saw  only  its  enemies  in 
free  soilers  who  disputed  the  policy  of  Douglas,  and  the  party  that 
called  to  arms  against  traitors.  Threats  of  fire-eaters  he  echoed 
with  an  abandon  that  caused  taunts  and  threats  of  violence,  which 
culminated  early  in  the  war  in  an  arrest  and  the  soldiers'  resolve 
that  he  should  be  hung  for  a  reviling  assault  on  Mr.  Lincoln  and 
the  "  Union  hirelings ".  A  march  in  the  gleam  of  bayonets  held 
by  the  jeered  cohorts  caused  so  little  alarm  for  his  personal  safety 
that  an  intercession  and  rescue  by  Union  friends  failed  to  secure 
a  thankful  recognition,  rather  the  cool  remark  that  his  blood  was 
worth  more  shed  then  by  fanatic  violence  for  the  world,  than  in 
sluggish  flow  to  old  age.  Disdaining  a  mask,  he  would  hold  mere 
policy  as  the  last  resort  of  an  imbecile ;  and  he  was  elated  by  rebel 
victories,  and  predicted  that  the  South  would  never  submit.  The 
declaration  by  the  national  democracy  that  "the  war  was  a  fail 
ure  ",  found  no  warmer  advocate,  nor  one  so  bitter  in  denunciation 
of  the  war  democrat  —  a  tory  away  from  home.  The  press  at  the 
South  printed  with  compliments  his  disunion  philippics,  which  min 
istered  to  his  vanity,  while  the  coldness  of  his  party  adherents  at 
the  North  refused  a  fair  recognition  of  the  claims  of  the  most  elo 
quent  advocate  of  the  cause  daily  becoming  more  desperate. 

The  sky  to  Dean  was  leaden,  starless,  and  himself  fated  to 
obscurity  if  not  derision  and  contempt.  Only  the  past  became 
eloquent ;  the  present  tame,  linked  to  the  sway  of  corporations  and 
tyrants  dominating  in  a  drear  future.  He  had  such  a  chronic  hatred 
of  corporations  that  a  ride  in  a  luxurious  railway  coach  brought 
no  pleasure.  The  solace  found  in  a  Havana  segar  was  a  delusion 
contrasted  with  what  he  gained  from  the  corn-cob  pipe  around  the 
log  cabin  hearth.  All  was  degeneracy.  Since  Clay  and  Webster, 
the  Senate  had  been  bereft  of  orators.  We  have  no  genius  that 


272  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

Shakespeare  will  not  eclipse  in  the  realm  of  thought  for  all  time. 
Incredulous  as  to  modern  invention  and  discovery,  he  was  enthu 
siastic  over  the  lost  arts  and  charmed  with  ancient  literature  and 
doubtful  legends.  The  world  generally  was  awry;  society  retro 
gressive,  with  exceptional  persons  reflecting  man  in  the  morning 
of  creation  for  whom  he  yet  avowed  nobility. 

Thousands  will  remember  him  for  matchless  description  of  the 
race  fresh  from  the  hands  of  the  Creator.  We  listened  to  a  genius 
and  preacher  who  had  found  a  theme  worthy  of  his  great  powers. 
You  saw  all  the  elements  in  nature  under  law  upheld  for  man ;  the 
ark  floating;  the  tragedy  on  Calvary;  the  stars  going  out  and  the 
sun  turned  to  darkness  only  when  the  last  born  of  the  benighted 
had  entered  on  an  endless  career  of  fruition.  He  ejaculated  with 
deep  emotion,  "Poor  man,  look  up;  proud  rebel,  kneel;  scorning 
infidel,  hush,  or  be  damned ! "  His  personal  appearance  of  unclean- 
liness  was  a  real  case  of  hydrophobia  in  a  figure  without  the  vio 
lent  spasms.  An  apology  that  clothes  did  not  make  the  man  did 
not  meet  the  demand  of  society  for  comeliness.  A  brain  that 
bulged  with  combativeness  gave  little  control  to  a  tongue  when  set 
on  fire,  eadangering  in  turn  his  friends  and  everyone  whom  he 
encountered.  Personal  following  he  had  little,  and  could  be 
quoted  for  brilliancy  rather  than  for  safe  counsel.  Without  a 
great  purpose,  he  was  floating  without  pilot  or  rudder  to  an  uncer 
tain  harbor. 

The  theme  of  immortality  in  a  sermon  thirty  years  agone  by 
Dean  left  impressions  yet  vivid,  and  moves  to  pity  that  education 
was  denied  in  discipline  to  such  noble  elementary  forces.  It 
excites  wonder  that  an  Ishmaelite  career  should  develop  the  rarest 
fruits  of  generous  culture,  an  historian  of  ability,  a  gifted  orator, 
most  pathetic  in  appeal  and  sublime  in  imagery,  ranking  him  the 
peer  of  rhetoricians  and  a  master  of  assemblies.  Apart  from  his 
accomplishments  so  well  known  in  Iowa,  I  do  not  close  without 
noting  those  redeeming  virtues  not  to  be  obscured  by  political 
offenses.  His  verbal  promise  carried  the  value  of  a  bond. 

Concluding  these  words  on  Iowa  personages  and  friends,  I  have 
a  presentiment ;  it  is  that  no  more  of  faint  praise  or  warm  admira 
tion  will  fall  from  my  pen.  For  the  fallen  by  the  way  I  could 
only  offer  a  laurel  sprig  prepared  by  affection,  and  for  the  living 
few  actors  and  thousands  more  humble,  but  not  less  worthy 
patriots,  soldiers  with  stars  and  scars,  Christians  valiant,  a  sigh. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  273 

Xerxes  at  the  head  of  his  army,  crossing  the  Hellespont  into 
Greece,  was  seen  to  shed  tears  in  thought  that  in  one  hundred 
years  not  one  of  the  braves  would  be  alive.  Far  less  is  rny  limit 
of  allotted  years,  and  that  of  comrades,  but  my  grief  will  be 
assuaged  in  hope  that  we  are  all  not  to  be  forgotten  by  the  children 
sporting  on  the  grass,  which  may  be  green  over  the  mounds  where 
our  ashes  repose.  If  there  be  no  inscription  to  tell  where  we  fell, 
there  may  be  a  record  of  deeds  to  ally  us  with  a  heroic  age,  counsels 
and  blood  which  will  long  survive  our  departure. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

Indians —  The  Sacs  and  Foxes  in  Iowa —  The  Friend  of  the  Indians, 
John  L.  Davenport  —  Indians  and  the  Cattle  Husbandry — The 
True  Policy  of  the  Nation  toward  its  Wards. 

SINCE  my  entrance  into  public  life,  I  have  been  interested  in  the 
peculiar  phases  of  the  Indian  problem.  I  find  that  our  American 
policy  has  wanted  advocates  bold  to  suggest  and  rigorous  to  per 
form.  The  national  cost  for  protection  on  the  frontier  has  been 
so  great  that  it  would  have  been  economy  for  the  government  to 
have  maintained  the  various  tribes  at  academic  halls  and  first-class 
hotels,  rather  than  to  incur  the  expense  of  wasted  annuities  and  of 
soldiers  in  sufficient  numbers  to  protect  against  the  "braves"  on 
the  war  path.  Meantime  frontiersmen  have  maintained  that  "the 
only  good  Indian  was  a  dead  one ",  and  Eastern  philanthropy  has 
asserted  that  fraudulent  treaties  and  bad  faith  were  sins  "  crying  to 
heaven."  With  an  eastern  birth  and  education  and  a  western  resi 
dence,  I  cannot  coincide  with  either  party,  believing  that  a  radical 
policy  of  government  will  remove  the  scandals  of  the  past,  and 
elevate  the  living  remnants  of  barbarism  in  the  scale  of  humanity, 
to  become  aids  to  a  higher  civilization.  It  is  within  the  memory 
of  residents  of  Iowa  that  all  its  soil  was  claimed  by  some  twenty 
or  more  ambitious  tribes.  These  are  reduced  by  extinction  and 
emigration  to  the  remnants  of  one  tribe,  the  Sacs  and  Foxes. 

THE    SACS    AND    FOX    INDIANS. 

At  Grinnell,  from  the  college  telescope  tower,  you  can  see  the 
smoke  from  the  wigwams  of  these  Indians  twenty  miles  north-east, 
by  the  Iowa  River.  They  number  about  four  hundred,  and  are 
truly  an  object  lesson  near  home,  cognate  to  history,  which  confers 
slight  honor  on  their  neighbors,  the  pale  faces.  I  do  not  judge  the 
whites  harshly.  The  Indians  have  been  held  the  wards  of  the 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY  YEARS.  275 

nation,  to  whom  they  entrusted  under  treaty  stipulations  their 
money,  which  draws  five  per  cent,  interest  and  aggregates  from 
$13,000  to  $15,000  annually. 

I  knew  them  only  by  roving  hunting  bands  up  to  1856,  when  I 
was  a  senatorial  cendidate,  and  it  was  rumored  that  he  who  would 
shelter  black  runaway  slaves  would  favor  the  Indians,  petitioning 
the  state  to  remain  here  on  their  old  hunting  grounds.  To  this 
charge  I  made  no  answer,  and  on  investigation  became  their  friend. 
By  an  interpreter  it  was  learned  that  after  their  removal  to  a  res 
ervation  west  of  the  Missouri  River,  a  tribal  war  broke  out  which 
threatened  the  extermination  of  the  weaker  party.  Their  only 
way  of  escape  was  to  old  haunts  on  the  Iowa  River,  near  which 
are  ancient  mounds  marking  the  burial  place  of  ancestors.  One  of 
their  good  friends,  during  the  session  of  the  legislature  at  Iowa 
City,  brought  me  a  petition  from  many  of  their  neighbors,  my  con 
stituents,  asking  permission  for  them  to  remain  in  the  state  while 
peaceful.  This  was  endorsed  by  Governor  Grimes  as  humane. 
Then  followed  the  passage  of  a  law  which  allowed  them  to  remain 
in  Iowa  while  peaceful,  and  to  become  owners  in  fee  of  lands  which 
they  have  since  owned,  above  one  thousand  acres.  From  my  inter 
est  in  their  welfare,  as  they  passed,  painted  and  forlorn,  not  in 
compliment  they  were  called  "  Grinnell's  Indians  ",  and  their  intru 
sion  by  calls  for  food  at  my  house  was  varied  by  a  fire  set  in  the 
street  and  whoops  and  war  dances  for  my  home  entertainment. 
These  professions  of  regard  I  improved  by  calling  out  "shame", 
when  I  met  the  braves  riding  ponies  and  the  squaws  on  foot. 
Then  they  were  made  to  know  that  a  condition  of  my  friendship 
and  an  effort  to  secure  the  payment  of  annuities  in  Iowa,  was  that 
they  would  send  their  children  to  school;  only  responded  to  by 
scowls  and  a  deep  ugh !  ugh  !  I  called  on  them  one  pleasant  after 
noon  autumn  feast-day,  and  on  the  mention  of  school,  the  bucks 
hied  away  one  by  one  in  the  bushes,  leaving  my  entertainment  to 
the  squaws.  The  children  I  could  no  more  fondle  than  their  wild 
game;  yet  they  were  in  line,  objects  of  maternal  solicitude,  first  by 
hasty  washing,  followed  by  head-clearing  devices  —  a  most  disgust 
ing  episode  in  a  show  of  celerity  in  destruction  of  vermin,  most 
commendable,  yet  cutting  short  as  fruitless  my  educational  call  on 
the  dusky  tribe. 

They  were  poor,  morose,  frequent  beggars,  and  became  intox 
icated  whenever  a  white  whiskey  dealer  was  sordid  and  base 


276  EEMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY  YEARS. 

enough  to  dare  sell  the  fire-water.  Their  annuities  were  withheld 
to  compel  their  return  to  Nebraska,  which  I  deemed  great  injustice, 
and  while  in  Congress  made  futile  attempts  for  a  remedy.  Success 
came  at  last  by  a  plan  which,  however  devoid  of  the  marks  of 
high  statesmanship,  was  useful  in  an  emergency  where  precedent 
becomes  tyranny  and  red  tape  the  sign  of  a  man  lapsed  into  an  offi 
cial  machine.  There  is  an  Indian  appropriation  bill  before  each 
Congress  with  the  sanction  of  commissioner  and  Indian  affairs  com 
mittee,  which  is  considered  in  committee  of  the  whole.  That  was 
my  place  for  hearing  by  amendment  under  a  five-minute  rule,  and 
trial  was  vain  while  Mr.  Thaddeus  Stevens,  the  leader  of  the  house 
and  chairman  of  the  committee,  was  in  opposition. 

To  him  I  made  an  appeal  in  behalf  of  my  Indians.  "The 
case,"  he  said,  "I  know  is  strong,  but  we  have  a  unanimous 
report,  and  are  pledged  to  the  bill."  I  replied,  "  Suppose  you  are 
not  present  when  my  amendment  is  offered."  "That  is  another 
view.  Duties  don't  clash,  and  I  wish  without  dereliction  I  might 
serve  poor  people,  or  encourage  in  good  faith  what  has  been  so 
often  here  voted  down."  "I  will  take  care  of  that  if  you  will 
allow  me  " ;  which  remark  met  with  a  friendly  response. 

The  right  person  I  found,  to  send  at  a  proper  time  his  card  to 
Mr.  Stevens,  asking  for  a  few  minutes,  and  in  his  absence,  on 
reading  the  "Sacs  and  Fox's  appropriation"  item,  1  offered  this 
amendment  — 

"  Provided,  that  the  portion  of  the  tribe  now  residing  in  Tama 
county,  Iowa,  shall,  during  their  good  behavior  and  residence  in 
Iowa,  with  the  consent  of  that  state,  be  paid  at  their  present 
homes  annuity  pro  rata." 

It  was  opposed  as  an  innovation,  yet  the  call  for  Mr.  Stevens 
was  futile,  and  amidst  shouts,  "It's  just!  who  cares  if  the  Indians 
get  it?"  etc.,  the  amendment  was  adopted  without  tellers  or  divi 
sion.  Thus  after  the  lapse  of  near  twenty-five  years,  I  am  not 
aware  that  this  disbursement  of  money  in  Iowa,  nor  the  ethics  of 
my  device  in  capturing  the  head  of  the  committee,  have  been 
called  in  question. 

What  now  of  the  Indians  ?  They  were  proprietors  of  the  soil, 
with  money,  school-house,  teachers  and  agents  furnished,  taking 
liberties  denied  white  men ;  building  grove  camp  fires,  hunting 
and  fishing  at  all  seasons;  beyond  contact  with  savage  tribes, 
in  the  sound  of  church  bells,  enjoying  the  example  and  comities 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  277 

of  an  industrious,  temperate  and  religious  people.  Did  they 
make  advances  in  real  civilization?  None.  One  of  the  braves 
said,  "  If  whisky  was  shut  out  from  Heaven,  he  did  not  want  to 
go  there."  Another  said,  "If  you  can  take  me  into  a  country 
where  there  is  plenty  of  corn  and  whisky,  I  will  go  right  along." 
If  they  were  seldom  drunk,  it  could  be  charged  to  the  scarcity 
of  the  "fire-water"  rather  than  to  virtuous  abstinence.  To  have 
flaunted  human  scalps  as  trophies  would  only  have  been  a  signal 
for  expatriation,  or  retaliation.  With  the  gusto  of  whites  they 
puffed  their  cigar;  really,  they  smoke  well,  and  their  fluency 
with  oaths  in  English  is  only  further  evidence  as  to  capacity 
for  learning,  had  it  not  been  easier  to  retain  the  game  of  the  forest 
in  captivity,  than  our  dusky  wards  in  a  school-house.  Thus  they 
.have  sunken  under  the  care  of  legal  and  white  guardianship  —  a 
travesty  of  paternal  solicitude.* 

Their  history  in  Iowa  furnishes  little  to  inspire  confidence  in 
present  methods  toward  an  elevation  in  the  scale  of  humanity. 
Are  there  new  devices  ?  This  question  may  have  an  answer  in  a 
broad  national  policy,  which  I  hope  to  outline.  Meantime  there 
is  credit  due  to  local  workers  sent  by  the  Government,  and  to 
many  provisions  made  by  statutes.  The  peaceful  but  stern  policy 
of  England  in  dealing  with  her  red  man,  on  this  continent,  is  to  the 
credit  of  that  nation,  contrasted  with  our  own,  yet  not  with  nobler 
promptings. 

Hon.  George  L.  Davenport,  late  agent,  was  a  born  patroon, 
who  spoke  with  good  judgment,  as  I  recall.  I  met  the  faithful  old 
man,  hampered  by  red  tape,  returning  to  his  home  in  Davenport 
for  a  few  days'  recreation.  When  I  came  to  Iowa  his  name  was 
associated  with  that  beautiful  city,  Davenport ;  he  was  bank  presi- 


*  They  make  their  annual  hunting  circuits,  sleep  on  the  ground,  compel  the 
squaws  to  perform  all  the  labor ;  their  wigwams  are  in  sight  from  passing  railway 
trains,  the  school-house,  and  within  the  sound  of  the  church  bell ;  an  honest  agent 
and  devoted  teacher  have  been  furnished  by  the  government,  yet  they  have  built 
no  houses,  have  neither  increased  in  numbers,  learned  to  read,  nor  adopted  the 
customs  and  habits  of  their  white  neighbors.  Owners  in  fee  of  rich  acres,  their 
huts  are  smoky  and  rude  as  those  of  their  progenitors  visited  by  De  Soto  three 
hundred  years  ago,  and  they  are  as  truly  savage  as  the  tribes  of  King  Phillip  met 
by  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  I  admit  the  fact  of  an  exceptional  school,  -church  and 
good  Indian,  in  the  romantic  dim  elsewhere.  But  if  these  are  the  Sacs  and  Foxes 
in  the  "green  tree"  of  Iowa  civilization,  what  of  the  roving  bands  in  the  "dry 
tree"  on  the  distant  frontier,  whose  eminent  virtues  are  best  known  in  romance 
and  tradition. 


278  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEAE8. 

dent,  capitalist  and  railway  director,  ranking  with,  millionaires. 
One  reverse  had  followed  another  in  quick  succession — partial 
deafness,  family  bereavement,  loss  of  property ;  and  he  was  ready 
to  accept  a  small  salary  as  agent  for  the  remnants  of  tribes  who 
were  his  playmates  in  childhood.  He  was  Prince  George,  the 
great  heir,  feted  by  Black  Hawk,  and  made  welcome  to  their 
camps  and  sacred  feasts.  Thirty  thousand  souls  have  become 
reduced  to  hundreds,  the  elder  of  whom  talked  of  fleet  ponies, 
arrows  tipped  with  poison,  war  whoop  and  scalping  enemies. 
Helpless  to  control  but  warm  in  the  affections,  he  was  devoted  in 
his  mission,  but  utterly  impotent  in  attracting  the  children  to 
school,  and  in  arrest  of  the  career  of  hereditary  nomads.  To  the 
poor  old  man  they  were  loyal,  cheerfully  hieing  away  to  their 
camps,  after  daily  embracing  with  tears  one  with  only  the  thread 
bare  garments  of  fallen  royalty. 

It  was  a  touching  historic  picture  of  human  vicissitude,  while 
the  devotion  of  a  Davenport  is  a  tribute  to  his  manly  heart.  Said 
he,  "  They  talked  of  hunts  and  races  fifty  years  ago,  of  their  braves 
fallen,  and  they  prayed  the  Good  Spirit  that  I  might  never  be 
weary  or  thirsty,  while  the  Iowa  river  rolled  and  they  had  a  hand 
to  steady  a  rifle  to  bring  down  the  game.  I  am  renewing  my  age. 
The  down  from  the  birds  they  pluck  for  my  pillow,  and  bring  the 
daintiest  food  for  my  table,  but  they  are  only  grown-up  savages, 
ready  to  die  for  me  if  I  would  but  be  indulgent  to  their  modes  of 
life,  which  I  cannot  be." 

In  the  sequel  it  was  not  as  I  wished,  that  their  friend  might 
long  live  to  mould  and  inspire  to  a  new  life.  He  said,  "  They  talk 
of  following  me  in  song  and  death-march,  and  say  that  their  last 
and  earliest  prayer  is  to  the  Great  Spirit  for  me,  and  that  they  will 
carry  my  game  in  the  good  hunting-grounds."  'The  old  man  did  not 
repel  their  wish  to  be  his  pall-bearers,  or  slight  the  medicine  man 
and  spiritual  incantations.  Mr.  Davenport  fell  prematurely  and 
brought  wailing  on  the  reservation ;  and  not  his  dusky  playmates 
only,  but  his  Iowa  neighbors  also,  mingled  their  tears  of  regret 
that  a  true  friend  was  cut  off  from  a  loved  and  promising  agency  for 
the  Sacs  and  Foxes  —  a  tribe  once  claiming  land  ownership  from 
the  father  to  the  mother  of  waters. 

Tribal  frictions,  war  and  disease  have  reduced  their  majority  of 
thousands  to  that  of  but  one  in  five  hundred  of  our  state  population ; 
and  their  present  limit  of  land  ownership  to  three  acres  each, 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  279 

points  to  a  near  day  of  extinction,  if  not  an  absorption.  Let  them, 
with  other  tribes,  be  governed,  as  are  our  children  and  the  unfortu 
nates  ;  and  an  equal  share  will  give  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres 
of  land  to  a  family.  Their  presence  will  then  no  longer  be  an 
offense  to  society,  or  a  menace  on  the  borders.  This,  as  a  state 
policy,  would  be  a  substitute  for  the  burlesque  methods  of  to-day. 
From  the  school-house  might  come  forth  a  subject  for  the  pen  of 
the  romancer.  Art  might  develop  a  painter,  and  a  sweet  voice 
might  attract  the  lovers  of  melody;  virtue  might  find  its  noble 
exemplars  and  the  novelist  many  a  hero.  Then  we  should  hear  no 
more  the  rude  jeers  for  "poor  Lo!"  returning  from  his  hunts  on 
the  low-necked,  reeling  pony,  and  with  an  acute  ear  for  an  alarm 
locomotive  whistle  which  brought  the  glee  of  a  coast  wrecker,  in  the 
promise  of  fresh  beef  mangled  by  the  railway  trains,  eking  out  a 
subsistence  maintained  by  the  sale  of  peltry  and  by  begging,  until 
the  migration  of  fowls  and  the  unlocking  of  the  streams  offered 
chances  for  food. 

While  officially  studying  our  cattle  industries  on  the  border  I 
made  an  examination  of  the  Indian  question  and  made  a  report  to 
the  government,  which  I  here  condense,  with  some  interspersed 
remarks. 

THE    INDIAN    AND    CATTLE    HUSBANDRY. 

Our  dusky  wards  may  be  valuable  scouts,  but  have  not  the 
qualities  of  good  herdsmen.  They  are  never  out  of  mind  on  the 
frontier  and  will  not  be  overlooked  in  this  discussion.  Just  return 
ing  from  the  western  borders,  the  writer  may  be  charged  by  some 
with  imbibing  the  common  frontier  sentiment  that  "the  only  good 
Indian  is  a  dead  one".  To  that  he  demurs,  having  sat  at  the  hos 
pitable  table  of  the  Creek  by  the  Arkansas,  employed  the  Cherokee 
as  a  faithful  guide,  and  camped  with  the  Choctaw,  finding  safe 
repose  in  the  rustle  of  his  cornfields ;  and,  nearer  home,  by  our 
Iowa  river  the  Sacs  and  Foxes  offered  him,  in  return  for  supposed 
favors,  the  compliment  of  rude  songs  and  the  war-dance. 

The  Indian  has  few  friends  on  the  cattle-ranges,  is  commonly 
under  suspicion  as  a  cattle-thief  and  is  a  menace  and  terror  to 
unprotected  families.  His  red  blanket  is  a  convenient  device  for 
inciting  a  stampede  of  cattle,  in  which  he  takes  grim  delight,  and, 
on  a  denial  of  tobacco  or  whiskey,  secretly  starts  the  devastating 


280  REMINISCENCED   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

fires  which  in  dry  seasons  sweep  uncontrolled  for  hundreds  of 
miles,  driving,  for  his  purpose,  the  buffalo  into  the  gorges  to  await 
wanton  slaughter,  and  leaving  the  ranchmen  the  alternative  of  a 
roving,  starving  herd,  or  a  drive  to  grass  on  an  unburned  district. 
Such  acts  provoke  retaliation,  and  the  only  valid  excuse  for  even 
our  small  army  is  his  presence,  and  a  fear  that  on  the  least  provo 
cation  he  may  take  to  the  war-path.  These  are  our  wards,  scat 
tered  and  uncontrolled,  tolerated  in  indulgences  and  idleness  which 
are  the  nurses  of  imbecility  and  treachery. 

Is  not  the  nation,  their  self-appointed  guardian,  most  at  fault  in 
allowing  them  the  dignity  of  equals  in  treaty-making,  and  then 
treating  them  as  dependent  children  to  be  fed  and  maintained  in 
idleness  under  threats,  to  the  disgust  alike  of  every  circle  around 
the  camp-fires  on  the  plains  (the  miner  who  holds  a  white  man  as 
good  as  an  Indian,  if  as  well-behaved,)  and  every  owner  of  a  herd 
beyond  the  reach  of  military  protection  ? 

The  Indian  tribes  embrace  three  hundred  thousand  souls,  not 
half  the  average  population  of  a  medium  state ;  yet  they  set  up 
claim  to  hunting-grounds  and  reservations  equal  to  the  area  of  five 
of  our  large  states  with  twenty  times  their  numbers.  They  have 
imperiled  the  emigrant,  turned  back  surveying  parties,  massacred 
ohe  defenseless,  and,  beyond  all  the  moneys  disbursed  of  trust 
funds,  have,  by  military  defenses  and  actual  losses,  cost  the  govern 
ment  in  the  last  half  century  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  above 
the  sum  expended  by  any  nation  in  any  historical  epoch  on  an  equal 
number  of  subjects;  and  all,  with  rare  exceptions,  in  worse  than 
fruitless  efforts  for  their  civilization.  What,  then,  is  the  correct 
policy  for  the  nation  and  right  to  the  pioneer  ?  I  answer :  Locate 
them  in  the  Indian  Territory.  Leave  undisturbed  the  Creek, 
Choctaw  and  Cherokee  tribes,  that,  localized,  have  made  substan 
tial  progress. 

Of  the  thirty-five  million  acres  let  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres 
of  well-watered,  fertile  lands  be  set  apart  for  each  Indian  family, 
which  would  leave  many  millions  of  acres  for  the  children,  to  be 
conveyed  and  held  in  fee  on  their  reaching  manhood.  Then  dis 
pose  of  the  reservations,  great  and  small,  under  a  graduated  system, 
at  their  full  value  to  herdsmen  and  farmers,  and  place  the  proceeds 
to  the  credit  of  our  wards,  to  be  expended  for  their  benefit  on  their 
new  homes  in  education  and  improvement.  You  have  then  made 
the  roving  savage  richer  than  the  average  pale-face  —  compelled 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  281 

the  wards,  like  their  fated  guardians,  to  work  or  endure  hunger. 
This  plan  will  substitute  a  cheap  local  and  effective  police  for  an 
ineffective,  costly  standing  army,  solving  in  ten  years  one  of  the 
great  problems  of  our  time  in  the  interest  of  humanity.  Thus  we 
may  discharge  an  imperative  obligation  by  rescuing  the  Aborigines 
from  decimation,  and  providing  for  their  elevation  to  the  rank  of 
civilized  man. 

Is  it  objected  that  this  destroys  his  natural  rights  and  places 
him  in  slavish  subjection?  What  are  his  actual  rights,  and  is  he 
placed  under  more  absolute  control  than  the  minor  ?  If  he  has  a 
right  to  a  home,  it  is  accorded  to  him ;  if  to  property,  then  in  that 
he  should  have  the  protection  of  a  powerful  nation.  If  he  claims 
millions  of  acres,  over  which  to  roam  as  hunting  grounds,  where 
did  he  get  his  title  ?  If  afraid  of  the  tyranny  of  his  guardian  gov 
ernment,  let  him  rise  to  the  plane  of  citizenship  and  take  part  in 
making  our  laws,  there  being  nothing  in  race  or  previous  condition 
to  hinder,  and  assert  his  independence.  Encouraged  to  abandon 
the  precarious  pursuits  of  hunting  and  fishing  by  the  incitements 
to  home  improvement  and  the  certainty  of  protection,  it  is  possible 
his  seeming  doom  may  be  averted.  It  is  stern  history  that  he 
has  no  power  to  arre.st  the  natural  encroachments  of  civilization, 
and  there  is  far  more  of  mere  sentimentality  in  the  defense  of  his 
ownership  of  our  country  than  of  good  law  —  deemed  the  first 
product  of  a  great  nation.  I  am  with  the  herdsman  who  innocently 
drives  across  the  reservation  and  consumes  the  grass  where  burned 
for  centuries.  He  has  a  precedent,  and  the  example  of  the  fathers, 
who  appropriated  what  the  savage  would  not,  causing  in  their 
journeying  westward  "the  wilderness  and  solitary  place  to  be  glad 
for  their  presence  ". 

I  cite  a  paragraph  from  an  oration  by  Ex-President  John 
Quincy  Adams,  eighty  years  ago,  in  defense  of  the  fathers,  and 
their  sons,  who  simply  assert  their  equality  as  herdsmen  with  the 
nomadic  hunter  and  the  savage,  where  Nature  has  spread  gifts 
with  a  lavish  hand  that  are  unused : 


The  Indian  right  of  possession  itself  stands,  with  regard  to  the  greatest  part  of 
the  country,  upon  a  questionable  foundation.  Their  cultivated  fields,  their  con 
structed  habitations,  a  space  of  ample  sufficiency  for  their  subsistence,  and  what 
ever  they  had  annexed  to  themselves  by  personal  labor,  was  undoubtedly  by  the 
laws  ol  nature  theirs.  But  what  is  the  right  of  a  huntsman  to  the  forest  of  a  thou 
sand  miles,  over  which  he  has  accidentally  ranged  in  quest  of  prey?  Shall  the 


282  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS. 

liberal  bounties  of  Providence  to  the  race  of  man  be  monopolized  by  one  of  ten 
thousand  for  whom  they  were  created  ?  Shall  the  exuberant  bosom  of  the  common 
mother,  amply  adequate  to  the  nourishment  of  millions,  be  claimed  exclusively  by 
a  few  hundreds  of  her  offspring?  Shall  the  lordly  savage  not  only  disdain  the 
virtues  and  enjoyments  of  civilization  himself,  but  shall  he  control  the  civilization 
of  a  world  ? 

This  is  the  philosophy  of  Grotius,  Pufendorf  and  Vattel ;  the 
latter  authority,  in  his  "  Law  of  Nations  ",  says  : 

A  nation  may  lawfully  take  possession  of  a  part  of  a  vast  country,  in  which  are 
found  none  but  erratic  nations,  incapable,  by  the  smallness  of  their  numbers,  to 
people  the  whole.  The  earth  belongs  to  the  human  race  in  general,  and  was 
designed  to  furnish  it  with  subsistence.  If  each  nation  had  resolved  from  the 
beginning  to  appropriate  to  itself  a  vast  country,  that  the  people  might  live  only  by 
hunting,  fishing  and  wild  fruits,  our  globe  would  not  be  sufficient  to  maintain  a 
tenth  part  of  its  present  inhabitants.  People  have  not,  then,  deviated  from  the 
views  of  nature  in  confining  the  Indians  within  narrow  limits. 

I  would  not  be  understood  as  recommending  the  defrauding 
even  of  a  savage  of  that  which  he  properly  appropriates,  or  which 
promises  to  be  a  probable  advantage  to  his  posterity.  I  would 
change  his  mode  of  life,  now  dangerous  to  neighbors,  and  the  nurse 
of  immoralities.  I  would  take  them  as  children  into  the  great 
family,  subjected  to  wholesome  law,  and  localized  where  their 
interests  can  be  guarded,  education  and  industry  enforced,  with  a 
visitation  of  the  punishment  of  a  court  rather  than  the  border 
retaliation. 

Had  this  policy  been  adopted  during  the  last  thirty  years,  we 
should  have  reared  worthy  specimens  of  the  race — not  barbarians 
with  beastly  instincts,  relying  on  a  gun  for  food,  and  a  dog  for  a 
companion,  except  when  slain  in  the  extremity  of  hunger  or  carved 
for  a  religious  feast.  This  fostering  of  imbecility,  ignorance,  idle 
ness  and  the  grossest  animalism,  leaves  the  dusky  characters  as 
they  were  a  century  ago,  for  our  reproach. 

NATIONAL    ABSOLUTE    CONTROL. 

This  policy  is  the  dictate  of  humane  statesmanship,  calling  but 
for  a  few  chapters  of  national  legislation,  relegating  the  whole 
question  to  a  mutual  council  rather  than  to  the  caprice  and  false 
precedents  of  doubtful  friends.  The  object  of  the  commission 
should  be,  the  breaking  of  the  bonds  of  woman's  serfdom;  com- 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS.  283 

pelling  a  selection  and  occupancy  of  lands  by  the  adult  males,  with 
bread  and  liberty  contingent  upon  work.  Education  should  be 
absolutely  compulsory,  as  in  our  state  reformatory  institutions. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  magnitude  of  the  numbers  involved  to 
discourage.  After  the  adults  have  taken  the  land  in  severalty, 
there  will  not  exceed  twenty-five  thousand  men  under  compulsory 
law,  and  thirty  thousand  children  of  a  school  age  will  be  a  high 
estimate  of  the  number  falling  under  treatment  as  infants  and 
youth.  This  scheme  is  a  far  remove  from  maudlin  sympathy  and 
a  toleration  of  idleness,  when  work  should  be  the  demand  to  save 
from  the  pangs  of  hunger;  obedience  and  decency  would  be  the 
conditions  of  governmental  control  and  protection.  The  benign 
forces  of  this  century  wait  on  the  culmination  of  so  beneficent  a 
scheme. 

The  last  sands  of  the  memorable  1890  are  falling,  and  General 
Booth,  of  the  Salvation  Army,  proposes  to  the  world  a  humane 
scheme  for  London's  unfortunates — "In  Darkest  England  and  the 
Way  out."  American  philanthropy  can  no  longer  be  indifferent 
to  the  miseries  of  our  Indian  tribes.  Mothers  wait  for  emancipa 
tion  from  serfdom.  The  haughty,  oppressive  lords  require  a  gov 
ernmental  exaction  of  labor  as  a  condition  and  practice  to  exempt 
from  hunger.  Neglected  children  and  youth  call  for  compulsory 
education.  Who  will  have  part  in  the  coloring  of  this  picture — a 
symbol  of  the  beneficence  of  millions  of  hearts  who  will  it? 
Where  are  the  leaders  who  will  execute,  and  the  artists  who  will 
paint  a  matchless  testimonial  to  a  great  thought  embodied  in  sub 
lime  reality  ?  —  "  The  American  Indian  rescued  from  barbarism,  in 
the  family  of  civilization — a  man!" 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

The  Prohibition  Temperance  Issue — Skirmish  Line  Demonstrations 
—  The  Political  Status — Prohibition  Party  —  An  Address- - 
The  Iowa  Churches — George  C.  Haddock  —  Laws  of  Heredity — 
Revenue  from  Whiskey. 

A  LONG  public  contest  is  not  necessarily  monotonous.  Great 
issues  are  replete  with  varied  and  lasting  interest.  From  the  mid 
dle  of  the  century  to  1882,  and  since,  there  was  heard  in  Iowa 
the  clangor  of  arms  on  a  great  moral  battle-field.  The  lines  were 
daily  becoming  more  distinct  between  the  combatants.  It  was  the 
lovers  of  order,  economy,  patriotism  and  virtue,  against  the  most 
dangerous  foe  of  the  race,  drunken  with  victories  and  stimulated 
by  sordid  strife  for  gain.  Its  cohorts,  unchecked,  will  make  an 
easy  prey  of  the  millions  debased  by  appetite  and  blunted  in  their 
moral  sense.  Drinking  usages  cost  more  than  bread.  Drunkenness 
is  the  prolific  mother  of  criminals ;  and  it  has  a  death-roll  of  vic 
tims  greater  than  that  charged  to  the  other  two  great  grim  angels 
of  destruction — disease  and  war.  Can  there  be  an  excuse,  then, 
for  indifference  or  for  silence  ? 

Of  the  writer  said  one :  "  Let  him  speak,  who  defied  the  saloon 
in  his  own  city  by  a  prohibition  proviso;  who  staked  political  suc 
cess  on  a  temperance  plank,  and  inspired,  so  says  popular  opinion, 
a  state  to  march  by  the  light  of  the  torch  of  progress,  which  was 
held  up  in  Grinnell  with  ever  increasing  courage  and  with  brighter 
radiation  for  nearly  forty  years.  Far  was  he  from  a  professional 
reformer ;  and,  though  in  continued  demand  as  a  speaker  and  writer 
on  decisive  occasions,  yet  he  was  never  the  recipient  of  a  dime  in 
the  discharge  of  a  duty  linked  with  the  pleasure  found  in  pushing 
on  a  noble  cause." 

The  law  of  heredity  predestined  me  for  a  radical  actor  on  many 
lines.  My  venerated  father  left  for  the  children  the  evidence  of 
his  spirit  in  a  journey  on  foot  of  one  hundred  miles,  in  attendance 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  285 

at  the  first  national  abstinence  meeting  at  Saratoga  Springs,  N.  Y. 
Then  it  is  the  record  of  that  day,  that  in  the  shadow  of  a  distillery 
and  a  mammoth  cider-press,  himself  the  owner  of  the  latter,  Mayor 
Grinnell,  at  his  own  home,  gave  the  first  address  in  the  town 
against  the  gigantic  curse.  At  the  head  of  the  list  of  signers  to 
the  local  temperance  pledge  is  his  name,  with  a  John  Hancock 
chirography.  Then,  what  I  saw  of  the  baleful  effects  of  the  cider- 
drinking  habits  in  brutal  fighting  at  public  gatherings,  and  the 
debauched  condition  of  crowds  returning  from  barn-raising  and 
shooting-matches,  near  my  old  home,  left  their  vivid  impression. 
The  years  of  my  residence  in  cities  presented  a  picture  of  degrada 
tion  and  woe  which  forbade  indifference  when  on  the  great  theatre 
of  public  life  I  became  an  actor. 

To  found  a  temperance  town  in  the  West  was  a  cherished  aspi 
ration  on  leaving  New  York  in  1854.  None  were  wanted  as  neigh 
bors  who  would  tolerate  a  saloon.  In  fact  they  were  repelled  with 
decision,  if  not  rudeness,  while  there  was  a  warm  welcome  to  a 
large  class  who  came  here  to  escape  temptation  in  a  struggle  for 
reformation. 

SKIRMISH     LINE    DEMONSTRATIONS. 

The  first  time  I  crossed  our  wide  prairie  between  the  groves  in 
a  distance  of  twenty  miles,  where  there  was  but  one  house,  my 
party,  on  stopping  the  carriage,  saw  me  destroy  a  whiskey  sign, 
with  a  finger  pointing,  which  said,  "Whiskey  for  Sail."  I  knocked 
off  the  rude  finger  board,  and  took  it  into  the  hack,  my  company 
protesting  that  we  should  get  into  trouble.  My  apology  in  reply 
was,  that  the  word  "  for  sail "  had  some  nautical  meaning,  out  of 
place  on  a  prairie.  I  threw  the  sign  into  a  little  creek,  to  float 
down  the  great  river  to  the  Gulf,  lest  it  should  entice  travelers  to 
drunkenness. 

Contracts  were  to  be  made  for  breaking  prairie  by  the  native 
ox  drivers,  most  of  whom  carried  a  supply  of  whiskey,  costing 
twenty  cents  a  gallon,  and  mingled  their  drinks  with  most  offensive 
profanity.  It*  came  to  be  a  story  of  the  time  and  had  a  salutary 
influence,  that  I  actually  made  large  contracts  with  the  prairie- 
breakers  with  the  proviso  that  I  should  do  personally  "all  the 
swearing  done  on  the  job,  and  drink  all  the  whiskey  required." 
Big  contract ! 


286  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

On  the  laying  out  of  the  City  of  Grinnell,  the  proviso  against 
saloons  was  a  grave  affair.  It  was  on  the  consideration  of  one 
dollar  that  I  gave  the  net  proceeds  of  sales  and  city  lots  in  trust 
to  the  cause  of  education,  with  the  usual  warranty  title,  and  "  pro 
vided  that  ardent  spirits  were  not  sold  thereon  as  a  beverage, 
unless  by  my  consent  or  that  of  my  legal  representatives  ".  The 
guys,  the  buffetings  and  derision,  with  the  predictions  of  a  "one 
horse  town",  taken  with  the  scare'  of  conservative  friends,  and  the 
opinion  of  lawyers,  esteemed  very  wise,  that  the  proviso  would  not 
stand  in  the  courts  of  law,  was  a  test  of  my  firm  belief  in  the 
policy  of  inhibition.  Time  proved  it,  every  way,  a  salutary  step, 
bringing  together  a  people  in  accord  and  regard  for  education  and 
temperance.  No  one  jeopardized  his  realty  by  public  sale  of 
liquors,  and  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  a  case 
brought  from  Greeley,  Colorado,  sustained  the  principle  and  legality 
of  such  a  proviso  by  a  unanimous  opinion.  The  growth  of  Grin- 
nell  under  the  assumed  cloud  of  title,  was  great  and  phenomenal. 
It  became  apparent  that  the  high  repute  for  good  order,  without  a 
saloon,  moved  other  towns  to  imitate,  followed  by  the  activities  of 
county  officials.  Then  came  a  state  policy,  after  the  building  of 
railroads  and  the  influx  of  population,  stimulating  an  advance  to  a 
constitutional  temperance  amendment. 

No  saloon  was  one  of  the  three  planks  in  my  platform,  on 
which  I  stood  when  elected  state  senator  in  1856.  It  was  my 
policy  that  the  whole  state  should  enjoy  what  our  town  had 
found  beneficial.  Under  the  state  law  of  1855,  lager  beer  and 
native  wine  were  prohibited.  These  beverages  I  voted  to  exempt 
in  1858.  Of  the  beer  in  its  use  I  knew  nothing,  and  the  growth 
of  the  grape  I  would  encourage;  besides,  a  large  and  intelligent 
class  of  Germans  were  republicans,  who  promised,  on  this  exemp 
tion,  their  support  of  the  general  law,  threatened  by  repeal.  It 
was  a  case  of  "a  part  of  a  loaf  or  no  bread",  and,  to  keep  the 
party  intact  on  the  great  slavery  issue,  was  in  mind.  This  honest 
expedient,  with  all  the  light  then  attainable,  did  not  prove  a  wise 
policy.  Beer  and  wine  soon  became  a  cloak  for  the  sale  of  all 
intoxicants,  and  built  up  in  most  of  the  towns  defiant*  saloons. 

The  constitutional  prohibition  amendment  of  1882  was  a  sweep 
ing  protest  against  the  whole  nest  of  vipers.  It  only  failed  by 
a  clerical  omission,  and  for  it  statutory  prohibition  was  sub 
stituted  with  public  approval,  bringing  an  unquestioned  boon  to 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEAES.  287 

the  state.  Iowa,  judged  by  statistics  in  regard  to  illiteracy,  is 
more  than  the  Massachusetts  of  the  West,  besides  boasting  of  a 
small  percentage  of  criminals,  and  of  an  average  of  fifty  county 
jails  vacant  within  her  borders  for  some  years  past.  There  is  not 
an  employer  of  men  who  has  not  been  benefited,  nor  a  city  which 
is  not  rendered  more  attractive  and  richer  for  the  destruction  of 
the  liquor  traffic,  not  to  mention  the  tens  of  millions  of  dollars 
added  annually  to  our  wealth,  and  the  repute  of  her  citizens,  min 
istering  to  state  pride  and  attractive  to  the  best  people  of  the 
Republic  seeking  homes. 

THE    POLITICAL    STATUS. 

A  practically  united  republican  sentiment  saved  the  state  from 
the  delusion  of  high  license.  That  party,  in  order  to  self-preserva 
tion,  was  compelled  to  oppose  a  "  third-party "  candidate,  a  meas 
ure  supported  by  well-meaning  citizens,  but  especially  pleasing  to 
saloonists,  who  regarded  it  as  a  scheme  to  divide  the  dominant 
party,  yet  impotent  in  assaults  upon  their  ranks.  It  was  upon 
this  ground  that  Iowa  temperance  people  were  impatient  with  the 
devices  and  advice  of  those  outside  the  state,  ignorant  of  our  real 
status,  and  of  the  true  metal  of  the  temperance  legions. 

Persistency  in  demanding  a  national  adoption  of  our  principles 
was  suspicious.  Democracy,  in  the  platforms,  and  in  the  spirit 
and  practice  of  its  adherents,  was  opposition  to  "all  sumptuary" 
action.  Certain  republican  states  had  espoused  prohibition,  and 
the  national  party  in  convention  had  entered  a  resolve  in  favor  of 
temperance  and  the  home.  It  is  well  known  that  only  educating 
influences,  and  the  burdens  and  crimes  brought  by  the  saloon  fully 
exposed,  will  cause  a  prohibition  plank  to  be  else  than  political 
suicide.  The  republican  party  is  not  so  demented  as  to  take  coun 
sel  with  foes.  This  maxim  I  regard  as  practical  good  ethics, 
"  There  is  personal  responsibility  for  the  existence  around  us  of  an 
evil  which  we  might  have  prevented."  The  statesman  reformer 
says,  "Save  your  city  or  your  state,  if  without  power  to  control 
the  nation."  Thus  I  defend  the  republican  party  of  my  state, 
and  am  in  accord  with  its  action. 

When  honored  with  an  invitation  to  become  a  prohibition  party 
candidate  for  governor,  I  replied  in  a  letter,  of  which  the  follow 
ing  are  extracts : 


288  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETT   TEARS. 

GRINNELL,  IOWA,  Aug.  30,  1884. 
My  dear  Sir  : 

I  accept  the  implied  compliment  in  the  term  "Independent  Prohibitionist", 
but  must  distrust  your  judgment  if  you  advise  an  electoral  ticket  in  Iowa,  with 
myself  either  at  the  head  or  tail.  Independent  notions,  and  the  support  of  the 
lamented  Greeley,  brought,  I  know,  the  designation  of  an  "  assistant  Democrat" ; 
but  this  year  I  beg  to  be  excused.  Real  Democracy  deserves  a  better  fate  than 
being  caught  in  an  expediency  trap,  and  it  should  now  be  occupied  with  a  more 
elevating  occupation  than  that  of  the  fox  in  the  fable  losing  his  tail,  and  going 
about  to  counsel  all  other  foxes  that  it  was  fashionable  to  go  without  that  append 
age.  There  are  no  absolute  rules  of  military  warfare  in  capturing  a  fortress,  more 
than  in  moral  conquests,  but  there  is  one  that  commends  itself  to  even  the  novice 
in  combat,  viz :  Never  heed  the  counsel  of  your  enemies.  The  party  that  places 
free  whiskey  in  its  platform  just  as  dishonestly  tells  us  vote  for  St.  John,  and 
though  you  shoot  in  the  air  you  shall  be  as  gods  among  mortals.  No,  sir!  .  .  . 
.  This  year  under  both  Elaine  and  Butler  it  is  the  protection  of  labor  and  Ameri 
can  industries  vs.  a  British  policy  and  lower  wages,  with  Cleveland  as  a  leader. 

There  is  a  plain  issue The  St.  John  vote  will  cut  a  small  figure  in 

Iowa.  I  aspire  neither  to  leadership  nor  to  be  counted  with  the  "scattering",  to 
shorten  the  pilgrimage  of  a  party,  cold  and  hungry  for  twenty-four  years,  which 
has,  if  there  is  any  analogy  in  historic  judgments,  sixteen  years  of  the  forty  yet  to 
journey  before  reaching  the  promised  land,  for  a  greater  crime  than  the  worship  of 
a  golden  calf. 

Yours, 

J.  B.  GRINNELL. 

AN    ADDRESS. 

As  a  part  of  history,  I  may  here  insert  an  address,  written  by 
me  for  the  temperance  leaders  of  the  state  in  1886.  It  was  an 
appeal  which  voiced  the  situation  then,  and  has  an  historic  relation 
to  the  political  victory  of  that  year : 

"  Preliminary  discussion  educated  the  masses  up  to  a  high  plane  of  thought 
and  statesmanship,  and  led  to  a  courageous  act  born  of  deep  conviction.  Party 
lines  were  broken.  Capital  saw  its  opportunity ;  railway  managers  saw  a  device 
for  the  safety  of  property  and  persons;  fabricators  and  farmers  spoke  for  the 
imperiled  laborers ;  doting  fathers,  for  sons  on  the  road  to  shame ;  victims  of  the 
cup,  for  a  removal  of  dazzling  allurements;  educators  held  our  state  banner  for 
literacy  more  firmly,  fearing  no  rival.  The  five  years  of  discussion  and  restriction 
furnishes  a  proud  epoch.  In  the  period  of  national  depression  every  great  material 
interest  in  Iowa  has  gained  a  new  impulse.  Domestic  animals  have  increased  in 
value  and  number  without  a  precedent.  The  supremacy  of  corn  as  king  has  been 
vindicated  as  in  no  other  state,  without  alcoholic  inspiration ;  state  credit  has 
appreciated ;  population  has  increased  in  five  years  by  600,000 ;  many  thousands 
allured  here  by  the  legal  inhibition  of  the  saloon.  We  are  the  envy  and  admiration 
of  our  near  sisters,  alike  fortunate  in  native  resources  and  settlement,  yet  never  to 
be  our  successful  rivals,  so  long  as  they  are  contending  with  wastes  and  burden 
some  taxes  incident  to  the  saloon  system. 

Eighty  counties  in  the  state,  out  of  the  total  ninety-nine,  no  more  gild  a  sign  of 
welcome  to  revel  and  debauch,  but  drive  the  illicit  traffic  into  the  filthy  recesses  of 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  289 


darkness,  fixing  the  brand  of  infamy  on  abettors  of  law-breakers,  and  giving  no 
escape  for  the  guilty  from  fine  or  imprisonment  save  by  perjury,  or  in  the  device  of 
a  change  of  court  for  delay.  The  number  of  grog  shops  has  decreased  by  500,  and 
the  number  of  arrests  by  thousands.  A  decrease  in  the  consumption  of  whiskey 
and  beer  has  been  so  marked  that  makers  and  vendors  declare  their  business  on  the 
verge  of  ruin ;  a  confession  which  is  an  unwitting  tribute  to  the  efficacy  of  a  law 
enacted  for  a  noble  purpose,  only  requiring  the  support  of  courage  and  honest  offi 
cials  for  its  vindication  as  beneficent  to  a  people  happy  in  exemption  from  taxes 
and  vices  cognate,  which  are  the  direct  result  of  a  free  traffic  or  one  honored  and 
sanctioned  by  official  license. 

What  is  involved  in  the  democratic  demand  for  repeal  ? 

A  status  of  respectability  for  the  liquor  traffic,  not  enjoyed  in  Iowa  for  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century.  Indifference  to  the  warnings  of  the  medical  profession,  which 
are  prompted  by  a  survey  of  humanity  degraded  by  inebriation.  A  welcome  arid 
popular  toleration  of  the  public  sale  of  beverages,  now  deprecated  by  the  statesman 
of  all  lands  as  the  most  potent  agency  in  enslaving  the  weak  and  blunting  moral 
sensibility  for  the  commission  of  every  offense  in  the  calendar  of  crimes.  It  is  the 
blunder  of  the  time,  early  heaping  shame  upon  the  actors ;  a  proposal  which  rises 
to  the  rank  of  a  science  in  debasing  servility  to  the  saloon. 

Let  me  be  specific  to  be  plain.  Repeal  makes  no  exception  of  community, 
county,  city  or  town.  The  privilege  is  not  asked  as  a  favor,  but  as  a  birthright. 
The  traditional  yet  satirical  testimonials  of  good  moral  character  must  be  waived. 
Hearing  a  petition  would  be  a  farce,  like  bonds  for  good  behavior.  The  old 
demand  for  protection  to  society  against  despoilers  is  drowned  in  the  cry  and 
uproar  for  personal  liberty.  You  reverse  the  shield  which  guarded  the  weak  to 
emblazon  state  sovereignty  and  protection  for  an  avocation  outlawed.  Henceforth 
drunkard-making  shall  be  as  legitimate  an  avocation  and  enjoy  equal  honor  with 
mechanical  trades  and  mercantile  ventures.  Is  there  any  just  plea  for  this  new 
departure  to  enthrone  and  make  universal  that  so  long  outlawed  ? 

Where  will  the  party  look  for  company  in  its  abasement?  Is  it  to  the  states 
like  Missouri  or  Georgia  valiant  in  democracy?  No,  nor  to  New  York  or  New 
England.  Gallant  Iowa  must  furnish  the  soldiers  for  retreat  before  the  fumes  of 
whiskey  and  frothy  beer,  and  call  for  a  dismount  from  political  steeds,  and  a  back 
ward  movement,  lines  broken  and  the  picture  of  a  crab  engraven  on  our  coat  of 
arms.  Such  is  the  abandon  of  law-breakers  and  the  mercenary;  a  reproach  to 
civilization  in  a  blunder  neither  early  forgiven  or  to  be  forgotten  by  posterity. 

Is  there  no  exception  to  this  toleration  and  protection?  Yes,  it  is  found  in 
two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  or  in  one  thousand  dollars  as  the  extreme  cost  of 
indulgence.  This  is  no  option,  rather  a  command  to  every  community  —  conquer 
your  prejudices,  repress  conviction,  waive  local  protection  for  your  sons,  down  with 
majorities;  relegate  local  government  to  political  jugglery ;  you  may  vacate  your 
home,  rebel  against  the  slaughter-house  on  the  corner,  but  the  strolling  vendor  of 
drinks  is  guarded  in  his  sovereign  right  to  despoil.  The  flaming  swords  at  the  gate 
of  Eden  gleamed  with  the  purpose  of  a  God ;  in  a  model  state  they  are  sheathed  by 
a  party  edict  for  the  protection  of  vice  on  the  payment  of  money!  I  join  in  a  wide 
opinion  that  this  license  fund  is  blood-money,  taken  from  the  poor  wives  and  chil 
dren  of  saloon  victims  who  have  brought  gain  to  the  vendor,  and  has  no  proper 
place  in  the  city's  bank,  more  than  the  silver  pieces  held  by  Judas,  had  in  the 
Lord's  treasury.  So,  too,  the  large  sum  cannot  be  weighed  by  a  virtuous  state  in  a 
balance  against  a  wrong.  It  does  not  mitigate  an  offense,  but  gives  a  moral  prop 
to  the  actor's  respectability,  to  more  effectually  delude  and  debauch.  Shall  we  be 
forced  to  drink  this  cup  of  degradation,  and  the  clanking  of  our  chains  be  the 
mockery  of  that  social  and  political  independence  for  city  and  town,  now  our  joy 


290  REMINISCENCES  OF  FOETY   YEARS. 


and  pride  ?  I  remember  a  parallel  blunder  by  the  same  party,  and  from  that  grand 
historic  issue  let  us  gather  strength  and  inspiration  in  this  crisis.  It  was  thirty 
years  after  the  Missouri  Compromise  that  the  minions  of  slavery  sought  to  break 
the  compact  and  carry  their  crimes  into  Kansas.  It  is  thirty  years  since  the 
dominant  party  in  Iowa  denied  a  saloon  protection  by  common  law,  and  now  asks 
for  it  sovereign  toleration  and  protection.  Senator  Douglas  appeared  with 
squatter  sovereignty  as  a  panacea,  being  the  local  option  device  of  this  political 
crisis,  but  it  was  as  offensive  to  the  slave  power  as  option  now  is  to  vendors  and 
political  aspirants,  demanding  their  feigned  natural  rights  without  question.  It  is 
history  that  theft  of  ballot  boxes,  fire  and  slaughter,  could  not  stay  the  march  of 
heroes  for  liberty,  who  were  led  in  spirit  by  John  Brown,  and  made  Kansas  for 
ever  free.  The  arrogant  demand  ruptured  the  party,  brought  derision  to  conserva 
tive  leaders,  and  left  it  in  a  disgraced  minority,  only  after  a  quarter  of  a  century 
to  regain  power  by  accident. 

That  earlier  meditated  crime  was  against  the  colored  race,  to  nationalize  slav 
ery  ;  this  democratic  device  in  Iowa  imperils  all  races  by  license  and  by  a  confes 
sion  that  a  small  minority  may  dictate  a  policy ;  it  declares  that  state  sovereignty 
shall  never  be  enforced  for  the  suppression  of  wrong,  and  its  only  service  is  in 
ensuring  toleration.  The  moral  status  of  slavery  in  the  nation  is  no  better  than 
that  of  the  saloon  in  Iowa.  Our  fathers  erected  the  national  barriers,  and  they 
who  removed  the  landmarks  lost  their  cause.  We  of  a  state,  by  argument,  and 
standing  on  the  shoulders  of  the  pioneer  fathers,  made  the  saloon  an  outlaw  like 
the  burglar  and  polygamist,  and  this  is  the  question  —  will  we,  proud  of  our  schools 
and  progress,  firm  in  our  convictions,  turn  back  the  hands  on  the  dial  plate  of 
time,  a  sign  to  all  the  world  of  party  servility  and  moral  retrogression  ? 

Fellow  citizens  of  Iowa,  let  me  enforce  the  appeal  which  my  voice  forbids  me 
to  speak,  based  on  the  convictions  and  observations  of  thirty-one  years'  residence 
in  the  state;  a  student  of  its  progress  and  cognizant  of  what  sobriety  brings  of 
thrift,  safety  and  honor,  to  the  farm,  corporate  affairs  and  the  town.  I  entered 
public  life  twenty-nine  years  ago,  the  friend  of  democratic  legislation  now  sought 
to  be  repealed  with  all  supplementary  enactments.  Under  the  national  war  cloud, 
against  my  better  judgment,  I  voted  in  the  senate  for  the  beer  and  wine  clause 
exemption.  It  did  not  propitiate,  rather  was  the  occasion  of  the  arrogant  demands, 
never  gaining  audience  until  now,  and  to  be  spurned  by  a  people  who  prize  their 
honor  above  the  gains  of  greed  and  political  success.  The  fear  of  the  incendiary 
torch  and  assassin's  blow  prevents  now  the  local  enforcement  of  salutary  law,  and 
nothing  can  be  gained  by  submission  to  a  debasing  demand  that  political  effrontery 
proposes  in  no  other  state.  You  cannot  quiet  this  horse-leech  cry,  give,  give,  no 
more  than  you  can  quiet  the  enraged  wild  beast,  athirst  for  a  victim,  by  a  friendly 
caress. 

Be  not  deluded,  you  who  care  for  the  altars  of  home  and  state  honor,  by  the 
rebellion  device  in  the  "  rural  districts  "  against  the  platform.  It  will  be  impotent 
now  in  effecting  reform,  for  it  is  too  late  to  cast  the  purifying  salt  of  opinion  into 
the  great  convention  fountain.  Shackled  by  party  you  have  no  option  in  the 
current,  more  than  the  loose  planks  to  stay  the  rush  of  waters,  and  your  place  will 
be  that  of  driftwood  in  the  eddies  below.  The  democratic  revolt  against  party 
made  honored  heroes  in  early  days ;  it  embalmed  their  memories  and  left  a  rich 
heritage  to  their  children.  Such  is  the  opportunity  of  patriots  now ;  it  is  the  last 
recourse  for  the  young  voters  imbibing  the  spirit  of  a  higher  civilization,  who 
would  care  for  the  honor  of  their  state  and  march  in  the  bold  vanguard  rather  than 
with  expediency  protestants  in  the  rear.  The  plot  cannot  be  concealed  nor  the 
issue  be  evaded.  The  supremacy  of  law  means  order  and  virtue  for  Iowa ;  repeal, 
the  domination  of  all  the  elements  of  evil  and  the  cohorts  of  crime. 


EEMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY  YEAES.  291 

THE    IOWA    CHURCHES. 

These,  in  a  warfare  against  the  saloon,  have  a  most  honorable 
record.  On  the  adoption  of  the  amendment  of  1882  there  were 
in  the  state  two  hundred  and  twenty  Congregational  clergymen, 
and  of  this  number  only  one  (and  he  afloat)  was  known  in  opposi 
tion  to  the  constitutional  inhibition.  Later  there  has  been  great 
unanimity  in  support  of  the  party  true  to  its  pledges,  which, 
joined  to  educational  forces,  will  ensure  a  higher  plane  of  action, 
rather  than  a  surrender  to  the  license  system.  "Moral  support 
or  legal  sanction  of  the  evil  is  wrong,"  is  the  watchword.  The 
ladies'  organization  was  both  zealous  and  efficient,  as,  later,  by  non- 
partisan  action  it  has  been  an  auxiliary,  and  is  full  of  promise  for 
the  future. 

The  Methodist  Church,  equipped  for  pioneer  advances,  has  ren 
dered  service  worthy  of  praise  and  close  imitation.  She  is  richer, 
and  the  cause  much  stronger,  for  the  life  and  fate  of  her  martyred 
son  in  1886,  at  Sioux  City.  That  city,  breathing  the  spirit  of  him 
who  was  assassinated,  drove  out  the  saloon,  thus  adding  to  the 
repute  of  her  citizens,  who  have  witnessed  marked  progress,  mate 
rial  and  social.  A  memorial  service  was  held  on  the  death  of 
Rev.  George  C.  Haddock,  in  most  of  our  towns.  At  the  meeting 
in  Grinnell,  which  was  large  and  sympathetic,  this  report  was 
made  of  one  of  the  speeches : 

Hon.  J.  B.  Grinnell  addressed  the  congregation  briefly  as  follows: 

Fellow  Citizens: 

Since  the  founding  of  our  city  we  have  not  been  called  to  such  a  service  as 
this.  By  an  heroic  act  in  Christian  devotion  Rev.  George  C.  Haddock  wears  the 
crown  of  martyrdom.  He  was  field  marshal  leading  the  army  of  law  and  order  in 
Sioux  City,  and  on  the  3d  of  August  was  shot  down  at  the  behest  of  cowards  and 
criminal  saloonists.  Through  the  cycles  of  the  ages  he  will  stand  unchallenged  on 
the  roll  of  the  army  of  martyrs.  He  fell  not  in  any  brawl;  not  provoking  by  a 
defiant  word  nor  brandishing  deadly  weapons;  but  seeking  to  uphold  the  sover 
eignty  of  the  law  in  the  interest  of  honor,  peace  and  virtue.  And  night  was  the 
fit  time  for  the  assassin's  deed,  when  the  very  clouds  for  shame  obscured  the  light 
of  the  stars.  In  the  calamities  of  the  world  there  is  often  neither  balm  nor  com 
pensation  ;  not  so  in  this  tragedy.  It  is  for  us  a  bloody  hiatus  when  the  gallant 
soldier  falls,  and  we  of  the  rear  rank  are  summoned  to  rise  o'er  the  sainted  form 
the  easier  to  climb  the  battlements  of  the  enemy  and  hasten  for  the  cause  a  victori 
ous  shout. 

I  have  returned  from  spending  days  in  Chicago  at  the  trial  of  the  murderous 
anarchists,  to  learn,  as  in  Iowa,  the  saloon  is  anarchy  and  death.  Let  us  press 


292  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

this  new  count  in  the  indictment  of  the  saloon  —  assassination!  Let  us  hold  up 
the  priceless  value  of  a  courageous  man !  Though  he  die,  the  red  rain  from  his 
brave  heart  invigorates  the  prohibition  tree,  that  can  never  die  in  our  soil,  but  will 
be  stronger  in  branch  and  richer  in  foliage  for  the  blood  which  has  flowed.  High 
as  Heaven  is  the  prohibition  martyr  above  our  charities.  He  has  gone  with  St. 
Stephen  "whom  they  stoned",  Christians  expiring  in  flames;  the  slain  in  the 
valleys  of  Piedmont ;  Lovejoy  by  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi ;  and  Lincoln  at  the 
national  capital,  all  enrolled  with  the  immortal.  It  is  ours  to  take  up  and  finish 
the  work  he  began  with  new  inspiration,  whether  the  saloon  calls  few  or  many  to 
seal  their  devotion  with  their  lives.  That  God,  who  gave  a  convoy  to  his  Elijah  in 
a  chariot  of  fire  will  care  well  for  the  fame  and  the  souls  of  the  martyrs,  and  it  will 
be  ours  to  care  for  the  orphans  and  widow  with  a  generosity  reflecting  gratitude 
and  devotion,  if  we  are  akin  to  Pilgrims,  Puritans,  Covenanters  and  Huguenots, 
that  have  enriched  so  many  fields  with  their  blood.  I  know  that  we  are  coveting 
the  mantle  of  the.  fallen.  Let  us  by  gifts  and  acts  make  him  we  have  met  to  honor 
more  eloquent  in  a  bloody  tragedy  than  possible  in  a  long  and  courageous  life. 


THE    LAWS    OF    HEREDITY. 

A  study  of  interest  is  the  entail  of  vicious  appetite.  On  a 
recent  visit  to  my  native  town  in  Vermont,  an  investigation  start 
led  me  with  facts  to  confirm  the  newer  theories.  I  looked  over 
the  accounts  of  Deacon  Solomon  Brown  —  the  merchant  and  Eevo- 
lutionary  soldier  —  which  were  kept  between  the  years  1798  and 
1802.  They  comprise  dealings  with  sixty  patrons,  charging  flour, 
salt,  tobacco,  codfish,  rum,  etc.,  with  near  ten  thousand  items,  and 
near  three  thousand  for  rum,  by  the  gallon,  pint  or  drink,  and  when 
quaffed  with  the  luxury  of  sugar,  an  additional  charge  of  two 
pence. 

Who  were  they?  Names  to  be  remembered  if  not  spoken. 
The  records  of  that  day  point  to  the  enslaved  victims  of  appetite, 
poisoned  in  blood,  enfeebled  in  purpose,  by  the  cruel  sorceries  of 
rum.  Their  children  no  fathers  loved  more,  but  visited  on  them  the 
Nemesis  under  the  law  of  heredity  impossible  to  flee  from ;  aye, 
the  edict  of  a  God  visiting  the  habits  of  the  fathers  upon  the  chil 
dren,  "unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation".  You  have  seen  the 
boy,  the  real  son  of  his  father,  whose  thirst  for  drink  was  no  sur 
prise,  never  divested  of  that  fiery  blood,  which  only  a  long  absti 
nence  could  cool.  It  leaped  in  the  veins,  mounted  the  cheek  of  the 
companions  of  my  youth,  and  under  strong  temptation  in  convivial 
circles,  our  born  noblemen  became  limp,  irresolute,  and  bent  the 
bow  of  life  with  timid,  uncertain  aim.  The  law  of  descent  is  insep 
arable  from  success  in  rearing  the  brutes,  as  is  the  ideal  of  a  God 
in  perfecting  a  race  in  His  image.  What,  then,  of  equal  concern  to 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEAES.  293 

those  habits,  the  basis  of  hope  for  your  children,  or  to  mar  with 
morbid  appetites,  crying,  give!  give!  to  slake  a  raging  thirst; 
potent  alike  to  lift  from  a  gulf  of  despair  or  nerve  for  unnatural 
criminal  deeds.  In  nature  we  may  give  strength  and  character  to 
the  blood,  as  sun  and  air  give  fragrance  and  color  to  the  rose. 
Thus  I  find  the  habits  of  the  fathers  often  poisonous  to  the  blood 
in  my  Iowa  home,  the  witness  of  desperate  struggles  in  reforma 
tion;  agonies  to  regain  manhood  lost  on  the  swift  currents  sweep 
ing  on  with  hereditary  taints. 

A    REVENUE    FROM    WHISKEY. 

On  this  question  of  taxation,  I  think  there  is  a  popular  misap 
prehension.  Increase  in  the  cost  of  intoxicating  drinks  decreases 
consumption,  especially  with  the  middle  classes  of  society.  Hence 
a  high  revenue  tax  is  in  the  interest  of  temperance,  leaving  out  of 
discussion  what  fashionable  usages  and  a  vicious  thirst  will  com 
mand.  The  tax  becomes  a  restraint,  yet  not  tainted  with  greed, 
nor  does  the  law,  as  in  liquor-licenses,  involve  the  citizen  as  an 
accomplice  or  an  abettor  of  crime.  As  an  individual  I  am  not  con 
scious  of  the  least  complicity  with  the  whiskey  dealer,  because  I 
vote  for  a  law  to  make  his  occupation  most  costly,  nor  can  the 
nation  be  called  to  an  account  that,  by  a  wise  apportionment  of 
taxes,  replenishes  its  treasury,  while  impotent  to  reform  the 
vicious.  Our  state  republican  platform  of  1888,  I  regarded  as  a 
blunder  at  least.  It  was  on  the  theory  that  cheap  intoxicants  do 
not  promote  intemperance,  and  gave  to  our  enemies  a  weapon  for  a 
deceptive  use,  rather  than  a  legitimate  argument  used  for  the 
repression  of  evil  by  civilized  nations. 

The  following  are  excerpts  from  my  speech  in  Congress  in 
1864: 


I  move  to  amend  the  amendment  of  the  gentleman  from  Illinois,  by  increasing 
the  tax  to  one  dollar  and  twenty  cents  per  gallon. 

The  proposition  which  I  now  submit  increases  the  tax  twenty  cents  a  gallon 
beyond  the  rate  proposed  by  the  gentleman  from  Illinois  [Mr.  Lovejoy.]  Now, 
sir,  I  am  sincere  in  this  amendment.  I  think  it  ought  to  prevail,  and  I  will  not 
say  that  I  think  it  ought  to  prevail  upon  the  ground  alone  that  we  are  to  require 
a  heavy  tax  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on  this  war ;  not  at  all.  I  have  nothing  to 
say  to  propitiate  the  whiskey  interest  of  this  country,  or  the  drinking  interest  of 
this  country.  I  believe  we  owe  it  to  ourselves  to  increase  largely  the  tax  upon  this 
article  which  is  vicious  in  its  tendencies,  and  which  is  unnecessary.  If,  as  sug- 


294  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 


gested  by  the  chairman  of  the  committee  of  ways  and  means,  men  will  have  it, 
let  them  pay  for  it. 

I  am  willing  that  my  party,  if  I  have  a  party  which  is  in  the  habit  of  drinking 
whiskey,  shall  pay  a  tax  of  three  or  five  dollars  a  gallon  for  it,  if  they  will  drink  it 
as  a  beverage. 

I  can  conceive  very  readily  how  natural  it  is  for  the  gentleman  over  the  way 
[Mr.  Fernando  Wood]  to  oppose  this  high  tax  upon  whiskey.  It  may  be  true,  as 
was  asserted  by  an  eminent  subterranean  democrat  of  the  city  of  New  York,  whose 
name  I  cannot  recall,  it  was  so  many  years  ago,  that  these  corner  groceries  are  the 
indispensable  nurseries  of  democracy.  [Laughter.]  I  do  not  stand  here  to  dispute 
that  assertion.  I  believe  that  the  corner  groceries  of  our  cities  are  nurseries  of 
democracy ;  they  are,  at  any  rate,  nurseries  of  a  certain  kind  of  democracy,  and  I 
would  like  to  see  them  swept  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Then,  sir,  will  the  raising  of  this  tax  reduce  the  consumption  of  whiskey  in  the 
country?  I  believe  it  will  reduce  that  consumption ;  I  believe,  if  you  will  levy  a 
high  tax  upon  whiskey,  there  will  be  a  less  consumption  upon  the  part  of  the  thou 
sands  and  millions  of  the  people  of  the  country  than  is  customary  now.  This  belief 
will  govern  my  vote  upon  this  article,  in  respect  to  the  taxes  we  are  to  levy  upon 
it,  and  apply  to  other  articles  which  cannot  be  classed  among  those  of  absolute 
necessity.  The  consumption  will  be  less  in  proportion  as  the  tax  is  greater, 
because  men  cannot  spare  the  money  to  purchase  if  the  cost  is  high.  The  laboring 
people,  who  the  gentleman  from  New  York  says  drink  whiskey,  do  it  because  they 
cannot  procure  the  money  to  purchase  brandy.  They  have  not  the  money  to  buy 
brandy,  and  therefore  they  consume  poisonous  whiskey.  And  thus,  if  the  cost  of 
whiskey  is  increased  the  consumption  will  be  less. 

The  gentleman  says  that  with  a  tax  of  two  dollars  and  a  half  per  gallon  in 
Great  Britain  the  consumption  has  increased.  I  do  not  think  the  tables  so  speak. 
I  think  those  best  qualified  to  speak  in  Great  Britain  are  of  the  opinion  that  if  the 
tax  upon  alcoholic  liquors  was  made  less  the  consumption  would  be  greater  than  it 
is  at  the  present  time. 

There  is  another  reason  why  I  wish  to  have  a  high  tax  upon  whiskey.  In  the 
midst  of  an  precedentedly  severe  winter  we  find  ourselves  needing  all  the  grain 
that  can  be  furnished  for  the  purpose  of  feeding  our  stock  and  supplying  the  army. 
If  we  stimulate  the  production  of  whiskey  we  shall  not  have  corn  enough  left  for 
feeding  the  stock  in  the  western  states.  1  would  rather  that  the  corn  and  rye 
should  be  used  for  stock  than  for  the  production  of  whiskey,  and  the  people,  I  am 
sure,  would  rather  gain  than  suffer  thereby.  We  are  informed  now  that  there  is  a 
deficiency  in  the  supply  of  the  one  article  of  corn  of  more  than  one  hundred  million 
bushels.  What  should  we  do  as  wise  men,  then,  but  reduce  as  far  as  possible  the 
production  of  whiskey?  If  I  had  the  power  I  would  issue  an  order  to  prevent 
altogether  distilation  for  drinking  purposes.  I  would  vote  with  any  man  that  dur 
ing  this  war  not  one  bushel  of  corn  or  rye  should  be  used  for  the  manufacture  of 
whiskey.  There  should  be  no  more  of  that  common,  miserable  stuff  which  has  a 
name  in  my  country  that  I  will  not  repeat ;  there  should  be  no  more  of  that  dread 
ful  poison  which  is  damaging  so  many  of  our  soldiers  and  officers. 

****** 

I  wish  to  do  injustice  to  no  one.  I  did  not  mention  any  name.  If  it  be  not 
true  as  I  have  stated,  it  still  does  not  militate  against  the  position  which  I  assume, 
that  whiskey  has  been  of  great  injury  to  the  service.  It  has  been  stated  that  high 
officers  of  the  military  department  have  been  incapacitated  from  duty  because  of 
drunkenness.  I  can  call  not  only  the  name  of  one,  but  of  many  who  have  informed 
me  that  such  is  the  fact.  This  evil,  then,  is  one  which  affects  both  officers  and 
soldiers;  and  I  would  raise  the  tax  upon  whiskey,  and  of  course  the  price,  so  high 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  295 

that  it  could  not  be  brought  within  the  reach  of  the  soldiers.    The  government 
should  supply  their  real  wants. 

Yes,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  would  not  care  if  the  constituents  of  the  gentleman 
from  New  York  [Mr.  Fernando  Wood]  never  obtained  another  drink  of  whiskey. 
[Laughter.]  If  that  were  to  be  the  case,  I  think  that  we  should  soon  have  a 
political  reformation  in  this  district.  [Laughter.]  I  would  have  his  constituents, 
when  they  stretch  their  necks  for  a  drink  to-night,  stretch  them  long,  knowing 
that  it  would  be  their  last  villainous  drink.  It  is  true  that  a  gentleman  must 
make  an  argument  for  his  own  constituents,  and  that  the  gentleman  from  New 
York  takes  care  of  his.  But  I  have  no  such  friends  to  propitiate.  I  know  that  it 
was  said  liquor  was  poured  out  by  the  barrel  against  me  in  my  district  during  the 
last  election.  Thank  God,  I  have  no  desire  to  belong  to  a  party  that  cannot  come 
into  power  except  upon  a  whiskey  barrel.  [Laughter.]  I  believe  that  when 
whiskey  is* abolished  morals  will  flourish.  We  can  do  without  it.  All  that  we 
want  is  God  and  the  flag  and  our  glorious  soldiers.  We  carried  the  election  in 
Iowa,  where  the  gentleman  from  New  York  [Mr.  Wood]  did  not  choose  to  fill  his 
appointments,  against  the  hero  of  Fort  Donelson  by  thirty-two  thousand  majority ; 
he,  unfortunately,  having  gone  into  the  wrong  pew.  [Laughter.] 


The  quiet  of  a  retired  life  invites  a  recast  of  opinions.  Time 
has  only  intensified  my  conviction  as  to  the  duty  of  the  state 
toward  the  tempted,  and  the  victims  of  appetite.  I  have  stood  on 
the  platform  with  the  eloquent  Marshall,  and  with  Governor  and 
Senator  Yates,  at  the  national  meeting  at  Washington,  entranced 
by  their  eloquence,  and  later  have  mourned  their  fall.  More  than 
thirty  of  the  most  promising  and  noble-born  of  the  citizens  of  our 
state,  I  have  seen  borne  out  with  the  fate  of  drunkards,  to  the 
bitter  grief  of  their  family  and  friends.  The  tornado  strikes  with 
most  resistless  force  the  tallest  and  broadest  trees  of  the  forest, 
with  not  greater  fatality  than,  under  a  license  system,  the  drink 
ing  usages  have  swept  down  the  generous  and  high-born  of  our 
friends  in  a  struggle  with  convivial  habits  and  debased  appetite. 

Prohibition  in  Iowa,  with  its  unmeasured  good,  can  never  be 
treated  as  a  failure.  It  reduced  crime  in  the  state  in  five  years  by 
one  hundred  per  cent.  It  reduced  the  cost  of  criminal  prosecu 
tions  for  the  same  period  seventy-five  per  cent.  It  reduced  the 
state  prison  convicts  by  thirty  per  cent.  The  savings  banks,  in 
evidence  of  thrift,  more  than  doubled  their  deposits  in  five  years. 
School-houses  and  churches  in  the  line  of  culture  and  moral  prog 
ress,  increased  fifteen  per  cent.  It  is  thus  a  living  question  of 
to-day,  shall  blind  conservatism  and  a  debauched  party  bring  con 
fusion  and  defeat  ?  The  early  defenders  of  slavery,  that  twin  of 
the  saloon,  are  passing  into  the  shadows  of  forge tfulness.  In  con 
trast,  the  early  and  valiant  champions  of  freedom  have  attained 


296  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

the  high  niches  of  just  fame,  and  require  no  monument  to  perpetu 
ate  their  memories ;  and  so  it  has  been  and  will  be  with  the  apos 
tles  of  temperance. 

For  the  wise  treatment  of  our  great  vice  there  must  be  rudi- 
mental  education,  patient  waiting  and  a  cheerful  toleration  of 
opinions,  while  never  offering  a  truce  to  the  conservatism  of  com 
promise  or  of  silence,  which  is  more  dangerous  than  the  blind  fury 
or  the  blandishments  of  an  open  enemy.  It  will  be  no  pastime  to 
deal  with  a  curse  that  brings  sixty  thousand  men  to  their  graves, 
annually,  and  marshals  an  army  of  drunkards  outnumbering  any 
army  that  ever  a  Grant  or  a  Napoleon  commanded.  Was  it  the 
fancy  of  Dean  Swift  that  "the  royal  arms  of  Lilliput  were  an  angel 
lifting  a  lame  beggar  from  the  earth  ?  "  Early  may  it  be  the  fact 
that  the  American  coat  of  arms  represents  the  good  Samaritan, 
linked  in  purpose  with  the  majesty  of  the  law-giver,  rescuing  the 
tempted  from  the  despoiler. 


CHAPTEE  XIX. 

Railroads  —  Personal  Work —  Central  Railroad  of  Iowa — Receiver 
ship  and  Superintendence  —  Malicious  Litigation — Vindication. 

A  LABOR  strike,  obstructing  travel  and  trade  for  a  week,  first 
directed  my  attention  to  the  value  of  railroads.  Celerity,  safety  in 
travel,  and  power  to  move  the  world's  produce  cheaply,  is  the  prov 
ince  of  our  railways. 

Memory  carries  me  back  to  the  day  when  there  was  but  one 
New  England  railway  —  that  employed  in  freighting  granite  from 
quarry  to  dock,  at  Quincy,  Mass.;  and  my  first  ride  on  a  rail 
road  was  given  me  by  a  showman  in  a  ball-room  on  a  miniature 
locomotive. 

A  Vermonter  laughed  at  the  predictions  that  eventually  we 
should  ride  on  an  iron  rail  at  the  rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour.  That 
prophet  saw  with  a  dim  eye  in  the  misty  valley,  not  on  the  mount 
of  far  vision.  He  was  in  advance,  however,  of  the  Massachusetts 
committee  of  the  state  legislature,  that  reported  in  favor  of  a  rail 
road  survey  from  Boston  west  to  Newton,  that  town  being  as  far 
west  as  the  road  would  probably  ever  go.  Eocky  hills,  mountains, 
deep  valleys  and  streams,  were  the  barriers  of  nature,  and  tavern 
keepers,  raisers  of  horses  and  grain  had  no  welcome  at  an  early 
day  for  steam  "to  make  their  occupations  and  farms  worthless". 
Now,  one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  miles  of  railroad  is  not 
only  the  greatest  material  fact  of  the  century,  but  one  of  the  solu 
tions  of  our  mysterious  progress,  to  which  the  capital  and  genius 
of  countries  boasting  of  the  oldest  civilization  are  awakening. 

The  iron  rail  has  achieved  far  more  for  the  new  West  than  for 
the  older  states.  It  has  invited  refined  society  where  before  pas 
toral  life  was  only  congenial  to  a  people  with  nomadic  habits.  It 
has  rendered  that  expanse  which  before  had  only  the  value  of  a 
clear  sky,  the  home  of  contented  and  prospered  millions.  It  has 
determined  the  value  of  farms  by  proximity  to  a  depot,  and  pro- 


298  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

moted  the  social  unity  of  the  people,  who  have  found  easy  and 
swift  ways  of  travel.  In  the  facilitation  of  exchanges  of  products 
and  speed  of  locomotion,  human  life  at  every  locality  distant  from 
seaboard,  or  crowded  city,  has  been  lengthened  one  half.  The 
accomplishments  at  fifty  years  by  the  fathers  are  easier  attained  by 
their  children  at  forty  years. 

Land  grants  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  railroads  through  new 
states  and  territories,  have  furnished  a  prolific  theme  for  shallow 
demagoguery.  No  party  alone  can  have  the  blame  or  credit  of  a 
policy  of  which  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  a  democratic  idol,  was  the 
early  champion.  It  was  statesmanship  to  give  treeless  prairies 
value,  and  place  a  double  price  on  alternate  sections  held  for  sale 
by  the  government.  Roads  by  tens  of  thousands  of  miles  were 
secured  early  by  aid  of  the  land  where  this  policy  secured  their 
construction.  The  alleged  great  gains  of  the  companies  with  a 
land  donation  are,  as  a  rule,  mythical.  They  anticipated  business 
and  waited  years  for  population  and  profits.  Local  trade,  and  not 
long  hauls  through  sparse  settlements,  furnished  the  secret  of  good 
dividends.  Thus  the  lands  became  a  necessity  to  secure  an  invest 
ment,  and  there  came  a  consideration  and  an  approval  of  a  device 
in  high  statesmanship  rather  than  reprobation  by  pessimists. 
Government  doubled  the  price,  and  one  half  was  of  value,  where 
before  all  was  worthless  as  a  home. 

PERSONAL    RELATIONS, 

I  went  to  the  New  West  in  anticipation  of  railroads,  to  enjoy 
their  benefits,  but  was  caught  in  the  fervor  of  a  pioneer,  and  later 
in  the  currents  of  enterprise  in  construction.  Between  my  home 
and  Davenport,  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles,  and  Iowa  City,  six 
ty-five  miles,  the  nearest  terminus,  I  wasted  years  and  vitality  by 
nearly  a  hundred  stage  and  hack  trips  to  bring  the  Rock  Island 
west.  I  made  great  efforts,  and  by  Henry  Farnam,  the  builder, 
was  made  a  director,  involving  responsibility  and  trips  to  New 
York  without  pay.  On  going  to  Washington  I  resigned  my  place, 
but  was  never  a  party  to  passing  our  stock  over  to  the  Chicago 
Trunk  Line  at  sixteen  cents  on  the  dollar ;  and  I  kept  the  certifi 
cates,  which  I  would  not  place  in  the  pool,  costing  me  par,  but 
now  only  valuable  for  a  picture  of  the  Mississippi  river  bridge  and 
the  autographs  of  two  great  men  —  A.  C.  Flogg,  treasurer,  and  Gen. 


REMINISCENCES  OF  FOETY  YEARS.  299 

John  A.  Dix,  president,  whose  successors  are  also  able  railway 
managers.  The  policy  of  a  thousand  miles  in  extensions  on  the 
frontier  invites  discussion  by  the  owners  and  managers,  but  is  for 
eign  to  my  personal  narrative.  Our  county  gave  aid  in  the  sum  of 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars  voted,  and  the  stock  could  have  once 
been  sold  for  a  good  sum ;  and  but  for  a  knowing  attorney,  now 
deceased,  our  debt  could  have  been  compromised  so  as  to  save  over 
sixty  thousand  dollars.  The  voting  aid  was  not  then  bad  policy, 
but  a  wise  act  to  secure  the  road,  greatly  enhancing  the  value  of 
farms  and  building  up  towns. 

In  1870  I  ventured  what  money  I  had,  and  used  my  credit  to 
its  limit,  in  building  a  road  from  Albia  to  Knoxville,  near  to  the 
great  coal  fields  of  Marion  county.  Later,  by  a  ^breach  of  faith  as 
to  a  tax  at  Albia,  I  changed  my  plan  from  Oskaloosa  west  in  con 
nection  with  the  Chicago,  Clinton,  Iowa  City  and  South-western — 
a  rational,  grand  pioneer  scheme  which  was  set  back  by  the  finan 
cial  reverses  of 'those  who  had  invested  their  money  previous  to 
the  Chicago  fire  of  1871.  For  five  years  I  was  the  owner  of  miles 
of  grading,  piling  and  bridging,  until  I  made  a  sale  to  Ex-Governor 
Merrill,  who,  after  the  road  was  built,  conveyed  all  to  the  C.  B.  & 
Q.  Railway  Co.  Even  after  the  sale,  my  loss  was  many  thousand 
dollars  under  a  contract  with  a  Chicago  capitalist.  My  judgment 
in  court  against  him  on  account  and  for  franchise  was  $47,000, 
which  I  never  sought  to  enforce  by  execution,  his  losses  by  the 
great  fire  were  so  great ;  and  I  took  off  a  burden  which  made  it 
possible  for  him  to  rise.  He  did  rise,  but  never  to  lessen  my  loss 
by  the  Chicago  fire  at  near  $50,000. 

By  solicitation,  I  was  engaged  in  securing  a  road  from  Clinton, 
down  the  Mississippi  river  to  Muscatine,  for  the  West.  After 
spending  money  and  time,  want  of  local  aid  led  to  its  abandonment, 
to  be  resumed  later  by  a  strong  company. 

I  hold  the  first  share  of  stock  issued  to  me  as  president  of  the 
Iowa  City  and  English  Valley  Railroad.  It  was  a  scheme  to  reach 
the  What  Cheer  coal  mines,  and,  aided  by  Hon.  Ezekiel  Clarke,  was 
full  of  promise,  but  it  was  clouded  by  a  stringent  money  market, 
and  I  gave  way,  in  want  of  courageous  friends,  to  the  B.  C.  R.  & 
N".  Railway,  since  completed  to  Montezuma. 

The  Grinnell  and  Montezuma  Railroad,  of  which  I  was  presi 
dent,  was  built  under  my  contract.  It  kept  the  county-seat  where 
the  people  were  mainly  liberal,  and,  despite  the  bad  faith  of  a  few, 


300  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS. 

did  not  bring  the  predicted  losses.  The  sale  was  to  the  Iowa  Cen 
tral,  which  finds  it  a  good  feeder  and  not  a  local  foe  to  its  business. 

The  Grinnell  and  State  Center  Eailroad  I  secured  by  franchise, 
pecuniary  aid  and  right  of  way,  then  passing  all  over  to  Ex-Gov 
ernor  Merrill  and  his  brother,  Mr.  J.  H.  Merrill  of  Des  Moines. 
It  was  a  good  local  enterprise,  of  value  to  the  people  and  a  natural 
feeder  to  the  Central,  to  which  it  was  sold  by  the  Merrill  brothers, 
and  brought  gain  rather  than  loss  to  all  the  parties. 

These  five  enterprises  were  of  less  concern,  great  as  were  their 
drafts  on  my  credit  and  years  of  time,  than 

THE  CENTRAL  IOWA  RAILROAD. 

Few,  if  any,  railroads  in  the  country  have  had  so  checkered  a 
history  on  the  stock  board,  in  the  frictions  which  befell  its  man 
agement,  and  in  the  sharp  personalities  of  which  it  was  the  prolific 
occasion.  It  is  my  purpose  to  give  its  origin,  mention  its  utility 
and  management,  omitting  a  vindication  of  my  official  service. 
That  may  be  done  by  another,  if  at  all,  after  a  submission  of  facts 
is  given.  The  inception  of  the  road  came  by  a  demand  for  good 
coal  found  in  southern  Iowa,  and  for  lumber  cheap  at  the  great 
market  of  Minneapolis.  Central  Iowa  had  little  timber  and  as  lit 
tle  coal,  which  now  costs  two  dollars  and  a  half  a  ton ;  then  costing 
from  five  to  six  dollars.  Lumber  rates  were  high,  there  being  no 
competition,  and  building  material  was  a  necessity. 

As  early  as  1858  I  was  elected  president  of  the  chartered  com 
pany,  to  construct  a  line  from  Albia  on  the  south  to  Mitchell  near 
the  Minnesota  line,  two  hundred  miles,  in  promise  of  connections 
with  a  line  to  St.  Louis  and  to  St.  Paul.  Oskaloosa,  Grinnell  and 
Toledo  were  among  the  points.  This  line  was  direct,  natural  and 
without  deflection  in  its  line ;  on  its  merits  it  was  a  scheme  that 
would  have  been  not  only  a  credit,  but  a  source  of  profit  to  the 
builders.  But  the  poor  money  of  that  time,  low  prices  of  farm 
products  followed  by  the  war,  left  the  dirt  grading  to  be  overgrown 
by  weeds.  Under  a  new  combination  by  Charles  C.  Gilman  of 
Eldora,  Iowa,  the  building  of  a  road  to  reach  the  coal  banks  at 
Steamboat  Eock  from  Ackley,  there  came  to  be  a  road  via  Mar- 
shalltown  and  Eldora,  taking  up  the  old  project  to  reach  the  Oska 
loosa  coal  banks.  It  was  here  that  I  could  only  count  up  the 
money  used  in  surveys  and  time  given  for  the  old  line,  and  I  was 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  301 

left  to  accept  the  place  of  a  director,  and  to  be  one  of  a  construc 
tion  company  for  the  new  project,  under  a  bold  leader  and  with 
capitalists  as  allies.  The  towns  were  liberal  and  enterprising,  and, 
without  depreciating  any  points,  Grinnell  gave  all  that  was  asked, 
some  $80,000,  for  which  stock  was  to  be  issued. 

My  subscription  was  work  in  grading  two  miles  of  road,  or  cash 
$5,000.  Then  I  paid  in  cash  $7,500  for  construction  stock  that 
would  have  brought  a  good  premium  while  work  was  going  on. 
Iron  was  $70  a  ton,  against  $30  now.  Labor  was  high,  and  this, 
after  the  Chicago  fire  and  the  depression  of  1873  and  '74,  was  my 
personal  financial  relation  in  1875 : 

Cash  paid  out,  $12,500;  interest,  $6,000.  Market  value  of 
stock  $1,500  ;  leaving  my  loss  at  $17,000. 

The  road  had  defaulted  in  its  interest,  and  there  were  sharp 
recriminations  and  frictions,  with  legal  devices  for  the  control  of 
the  property,  and  the  road,  under  a  foreign  superintendent,  had 
lost  in  business  and  was  reputed  unsafe  for  transit,  if  the  accidents 
and  public  rumor  were  any  indication.  Rival  roads  and  coal  com 
panies  and  localities  were  fertile  in  expedients  and  loud  in  com 
plaint  before  the  United  States  Court,  held  by  Judges  John  F. 
Dillon  and  J.  M.  Love. 

With  neither  of  the  judges  had  I  ever  held  conversation  as  to 
the  road,  nor  had  we  ever  had  any  business  relations  to  induce  the 
selection  of  myself  as  receiver  —  leading,  I  regret  to  say,  to  an 
experience  of  the  bitter  and  disgraceful  attacks  on  the  part  of 
certain  owners  and  employers,  foiled  in  their  schemes  for  personal 
aggrandizement,  and  resulting  in  the  obstruction  of  a  great  trust, 
representing  in  stock  and  bonds  from  ten  to  twelve  millions  of 
dollars. 

It  was  at  this  stage  that  I  received  this  telegram  from  Edward" 
K.  Mason,  clerk  of  the  United  States  Court:  "Judge  Dillon  wishes 
to  see  you  officially  at  Des  Moines,  if  you  will  come  up  to-day."  I 
did  not  dream  of  his  desire  until  in  his  presence,  never  having  a 
thought  but  of  my  losses,  and  not  of  the  management  of  the  rail 
road  property.  What  follows  would  be  without  interest  only  as  a 
key  to  my  action,  and  related  to  the  most  bitter  assaults  and  basest 
methods  in  regard  to  the  court,  trustee  of  bondholders,,  and  myself 
as  receiver. 

The  following  is  the  order  and  basis  for  large  discretion 
exercised : 


302  REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY  TEARS. 

ORDER  OF  HON.  JOHN  F.  DILLON,  JUDGE  OF  U.  S.  COURT. 

Hon.  J.  B.  Grinnell: 

For  some  time  a  suit  has  been  pending  in  this  court  to  foreclose  mortgages 
against  the  Central  Railroad  Company  of  Iowa,  amounting  to  six  or  seven  million 
dollars.  Owing  to  conflict  of  opinion  among  the  different  classes  of  bondholders 
of  the  same  class,  a  final  determination  of  the  case  was  delayed  until  October  last, 
when  a  decree  of  foreclosure  was  rendered,  which  it  was  supposed  would  be  satis 
factory  to  all  parties. 

Bondholders  to  the  amount  of  $200,000  are  dissatisfied  with  the  decree,  and  a 
few  days  since  the  court  allowed  these  parties  to  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  on  giving  security  in  the  sum  of  $1,000,000.  This  appeal  will  tie 
up  the  property  for  some  time,  and  it  is  important  to  the  public  and  to  the  parties 
in  interest  that  it  should,  meanwhile,  be  administered  with  impartiality  toward 
all,  with  economy  and  good  judgment.  No  permanent  receiver  has  ever  been 
appointed.  To  prevent  complications  by  reason  of  an  apprehend  appointment  of  a 
receiver  by  other  jurisdictions  after  the  suit  was  in  this  court,  we  of  our  own 
motion  named  Mr.  Pickering,  the  superintendent  of  the  company,  as  provisional 
receiver,  and  he  has  since  acted  in  both  capacities. 

If  no  apppeal  had  been  taken  no  change  would  have  been  made  in  the  receiver, 
as  by  the  sale  which  was  ordered,  the  property  would  have  soon  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  purchasers  or  the  new  company  organized  by  the  trustees.  As  it  is, 
the  court  feels  that  the  responsibility  for  the  proper  administration  of  the  property, 
pending  the  appeal,  rests  upon  it,  and  we  both  think,  in  view  of  the  peculiar  cir 
cumstances  of  the  case,  that  it  is  better  for  all  interests  that  the  receiver  and  super 
intendent  should  be  different  persons,  and  this  conclusion  does  not  rest  upon  any 
doubt  we  have  as  to  the  capacity  of  Mr.  Pickering,  or  as  a  result  of  any  investiga 
tion  of  the  complaints  made  against  his  administration.  The  court  has  appointed 
you,  of  its  own  motion,  in  order  to  give  assurance  that  the  railroad  will  be  judi 
ciously  and  economically  operated,  and  the  rights  of  all  the  parties  preserved.  The 
court  desires  the  receiver  to  understand  that  he  is  the  officer  of  the  court,  and 
expects  him  to  administer  the  trust  committed  to  him  in  the  fullest  confidence 
that  we  will  sustain  him  in  whatever  he  does  that  is  right,  whomsoever  it  may 
please  or  offend. 

The  railroads  in  the  hands  of  the  court  —  and  in  the  circuit  there  are  eight  or 
ten  —  have  all  been  run  with  less  expense  and  have  made  more  money,  than  when 
they  were  operated  by  the  companies ;  and  we  hope  and  believe  under  your  super 
vision,  that  this  road  will  prove  no  exception,  and  that  the  property  will  be  worth 
more  at  the  end  of  the  litigation,  two  or  three  years  hence,  than  it  is  now.  Your 
attention  is  called  to  the  report  of  the  Hon.  Hiram  Price,  special  commissioner,  on 
file,  and  you  will  proceed  to  carry  out  his  recommendations  as  far  as  practicable, 
and  you  will  make  monthly  detailed  reports  of  all  receipts  and  expenditures. 

This  was  on  the  14th  of  January,  1876.  Business  was  light, 
and  over  fifty  thousand  dollars  due  the  employees,  with  a  large 
demand  for  money  to  be  expended  on  the  road  and  to  improve  the 
rolling  stock.  The  superintendent  I  retained  until  he  sought  to 
thwart  my  enterprise  in  sending  ice,  plenty  in  Iowa,  to  St.  Louis 
where  there  was  none.  His  criticisms  I  closed  by  a  dismissal  from 
service,  and  the  ice  trade  resulted  in  a  profit  of  $50,000-  which 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   TEAMS.  303 

money  was  used  to  quiet  laborers  who  were  becoming  reckless. 
Full  control  I  assumed  with  an  address  to  the  employees,  reducing 
the  number  not  employed  on  the  track  to  thirty-seven  persons. 

For  Sunday  work  in  the  last  month  two  hundred  on  the  pay 
roll  had  received  extra  compensation.  That  I  stopped  by  an  order, 
and  limiting  Sunday  service  to  an  absolute  necessity.  The  follow 
ing  was  none  too  radical  an  order  for  the  emergency :  "  Any  person 
in  the  train  service  carrying  intoxicating  drinks  stealthily  for  others, 
or  any  employee  using  the  same,  will  be  dismissed  for  this  offense ; 
also  for  the  use  of  profane  or  ungentlemanly  language  to  the 
patrons  of  the  railroad."  These  were  reductions  and  radical  meth 
ods  from  necessity,  and  to  enforce  a  policy  which  brought  by  pub 
lic  admission  great  good.  An  order  giving,  by  a  new  time  table, 
to  conductors  the  privilege  of  being  with  their  families  on  Sunday, 
and  prompt  payment,  secured  the  loyalty  of  my  most  trusted  men. 

At  this  stage  I  made  a  plan  for  extensions  to  increase  business, 
and  Mr.  Kussell  Sage,  of  New  York,  and  his  associates  proposed  to 
furnish  the  money  and  take  the  receiver's  certificates.  The  scheme 
was  for  a  few  miles  on  the  north  to  secure  connection  with  a  St. 
Paul  line,  and  south-east  to  the  "What  Cheer"  coal  mines,  a 
branch  being  graded  to  Grundy  Center.  Owners,  Attorney  Judge 
Grant  and  the  court  approved,  but  waiting  for  a  court  order  there 
appeared  a  scurrilous  attack  on  the  parties,  the  -court  especially. 
Thereupon  Judge  Dillon  declined  to  make  any  order  or  sanction, 
outside  the  narrow  range  of  my  service.  This,  by  the  opinion  of 
owners  and  sagacious  Iowa  men,  depreciated  the  property  millions 
of  dollars  and  invited  what  occurred — an  occupancy  of  the  terri 
tory  by  rival  companies.  The  Central  was  doomed  then  to  be  only 
a  local  road  without  power  of  self-assertion. 

To  Mr.  A.  Kussell  I  committed  details  in  operation  of  trains 
and  the  purchase  of  materials  for  restoring  the  road  to  a  physical 
condition  of  safety.  An  outlay  advised  by  Mr.  Sage,  equal  to  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars,  was  made.  Spies  and  perjurers  were 
numerous,  with  a  purpose  to  blacken  the  administration,  to  restore 
those  dismissed  from  service,  and  advance  schemes  of  jobbery  by 
combinations  which  later  were  developed  with  well-known  adverse 
results. 

I  forbear  to  give  names  of  the  Bohemian-writer  inspirers  in 
Iowa  and  circulators  of  ten  thousand  sheets,  for  they  have  either 
died,  become  demented,  or  been  punished  for  unprofessional  acts. 


304  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS. 

The  assaults  upon  the  court  were  the  basest,  and  the  record  of 
perversions  appeared  in  a  large  pamphlet  and  a  defense  most  hon 
orable  by  the  bar  of  Iowa.  In  private  a  non-resident  party  made 
no  concealment  of  the  oath  he  had  taken  to  drive  the  judge  from 
the  bench  in  disgrace,  little  anticipating  that  he  would  show  to  the 
jurists  of  the  country  how  spotless  was  the  ermine  of  the  assailed. 
An  eminent  judge  in  New  York,  Mr.  Blatchford  (since  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court),  reading  the  assaults,  and  in  virtu 
ous  reprobation,  came  to  inquire  if  that  was  not  the  judge  to 
lecture  as  professor  in  the  Columbia  Law  School  of  New  York. 
There  came  a  relief  from  the  duties  of  a  laborious  circuit  to  a 
gentleman  of  scholarly  tastes,  securing  fees  as  counsellor  to  able 
litigants  and  corporations. 

To  Judge  John  F.  Dillon  that  reviler  brought  the  greatest  ben 
efits  indirectly.  Would  the  chief  counsellor  for  the  great  railway 
magnate  and  the  great  corporations  have  made  such  advancement 
but  for  the  notoriety  brought  by  foiled  cunning,  by  defamers  and 
marplots  ?  Judge  Love  was  loyal  to  his  colleague  and  to  duty  as 
always,  though  not  of  the  popular,  dominant  political  faith  of 
lowans,  and  has  shone  in  his  profession  with  the  increasing  luster 
of  a  gentleman  and  a  jurist.  Every  year  he  has  added  to  a  long 
and  brilliant  career,  now  popular  as  a  law  professor  in  the  State 
University,  and  as  presiding  district  judge. 

I  resigned  as  receiver  after  nearly  three  years  of  service.  The 
debts  were  paid  off,  and  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  extra  above 
ordinary  outlay  were  expended  on  the  track,  besides  the  advancing 
of  eighty-seven  thousand  dollars  in  operating  expenses.  For  this 
there  was  commendation  from  the  bench,  and  I  turned  over  to 
my  successor  fifty-three  thousand  dollars.  First  mortgage  bonds 
which  were,  at  my  appointment,  on  the  market  at  thirty-two  cents 
on  the  dollar  had  risen  to  seventy  cents,  and,  on  an  upward  rise 
of  value,  reached  above  par. 

The  fatal  stab  at  the  property  has  been  mentioned  as  incited 
by  a  quarrel  for  which  I  was  not  responsible,  nor  was  I  for  a  series 
of  reverses  in  depreciation  of  securities,  on  which  there  was  a  good 
basis  for  their  issue.  The  confidence  in  their  appreciation  under 
late  combinations  certainly  related  to  faith  in  the  property,  and  to 
confidence  in  the  resources  of  our  country  and  trust  in  the  "  good 
time  coming  ". 

In  personal  vindication  I  will  not  repeat  the  praises  of  railway 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  305 

patrons  and  commissioners,  but  only  the  official  request  of  Judge 
James  Grant,  attorney  for  the  trustees,  asking  for  the  discharge  of 
my  bondsmen : 

U.  S.  CIRCUIT  COURT,  DISTRICT  OF  IOWA. 
FARMERS'  LOAN  &  TRUST  co. 

vs. 

CENTRAL  R.   R.   OF  IOWA. 

In  asking  for  the  confirmation  of  the  report  of  the  master  and  consenting  for 
the  plaintiff  to  the  discharge  of  the  bond  of  Mr.  Grinnell  as  receiver,  I  think  it 
my  duty  to  him,  and  to  the  court,  to  say  that  I  believe  that  in  the  administration 
of  his  trust  he  has  been  strictly  honest  and  upright,  and  actuated  solely  by  a  desire 
to  promote  the  welfare  of  the  owners  of  the  property.  I  believe  that  he  has  given 
to  his  duties  in  addition  to  his  integrity,  his  utmost  care.  His  ability  has  been 
devoted  to  the  duties  which  he  assumed  when  imposed  upon  him  without  his 
application. 

Upon  his  surrender  of  the  property,  I  concur  entirely  in  the  opinion  of  the 
State  Commissioners  that  he  has  very  much  improved  the  condition  of  the  same, 
and  he  left  in  far  superior  condition  to  that  in  which  he  received  it. 

JAS.  GRANT,  Solicitor  for  Plaintiff. 

A    FINALITY. 

The  attempt  at  blackmailing  to  which  I  was  exposed  by  a  greed 
for  fees,  and  the  motive  of  those  foiled,  and  fallen  in  a  pit  dug  for 
another,  I  need  not  detail.  Yet,  on  a  deliberate  attack  made  on 
my  accounts  and  loose  threats  to  sue  rny  bondsmen  on  my  default, 
I  met  all  with  a  demand  for  a  trial  on  the  merits.  More  for  my 
vindication,  I  asked  an  increased  compensation  for  double  service 
as  superintendent  with  that  of  receiver.  Days  were  taken  before 
the  master  in  chancery.  It  was  proven  that  more  than  one  mill 
ion,  seven  hundred  thousand  dollars  had  passed  through  my  hands ; 
that  the  per  cent,  in  operating  expenses  had  been  lessened;  the 
morals  of  the  employees  —  numbering  six  hundred  —  had  been 
improved;  that  since  the  repairs  of  the  track  and  for  a  period  of 
two  years  not  a  wheel  had  been  off  the  rail  on  the  main  line ;  and 
my  compensation  was  increased  above  the  sum  fixed  by  Judge 
Dillon. 

This  is  found  in  the  United  States  reports  by  Judges  McCrary 
of  Iowa  and  Greer  of  St.  Paul.  Here  the  case  ended,  but  for  an 
appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  costing  the 
plaintiffs  thousands  of  dollars,  and  serviceable  only  to  the  attorney 
and  a  gratification  of  the  malice  of  a  party  not  content  with  wreck 
ing  the  property,  yet  persistent  in  burdening  the  court  with  a 


306  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEAES. 

sham  appeal.  It  was  by  the  court's  own  motion  that  I  served  the 
corporation,  and  had  been  sustained  in  every  branch  of  my  adminis 
tration.  A  good  fortune  I  attribute  to  good  maxims.  The  wheels 
must  be  kept  moving;  time  was  not  to  be  made  up  on  freight 
trains ;  drinking  intoxicants  was  not  compatible  with  safety  to 
property  or  persons. 

The  finality  was  on  my  motion  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  to  dismiss  the  appeal  at  plaintiff's  cost.  The  motion 
was  granted  by  Chief  Justice  Morrison  R.  Waite. 

This  opinion  of  a  leading  journalist  was  widely  copied  by  the 
press : 

THE  VINDICATION  MADE  COMPLETE.  The  action  taken  by  the  United  States 
Circuit  Court  at  Des  Moines,  on  Friday  last,  in  relation  to  the  issue  concerning  the 
Central  Railroad  of  Iowa,  and  particularly  as  to  the  connection  of  Judge  Dillon 
therewith,  must  be  everywhere  accepted  as  completing  the  triumphant  vindication 
of  that  honored  judicial  officer  from  all  the  charges  made  against  him  by  the  Gate 
faction  and  their  editorial  abettors.  From  the  bench,  under  all  the  liabilities  and 
sanctions  of  his  position  as  Judge  of  the  United  States  District  Court,  sitting  with 
Judge  Dillon  in  the  Circuit  Court,  Judge  Love  avowed  his  full  co-ordinate  respon 
sibility  for  every  decison  rendered  by  Judge  Dillon  in  relation  to  the  Iowa  Central 
and  the  litigation  of  its  bond  holders.  Not  content  with  thus  avowing  to  all  con 
cerned,  that  if  there  had!  been  any  maladministration  of  justice  by  the  court,  in 
any  particular,  in  connection  with  the  Central  Railroad  of  Iowa,  himself  had  been 
with  Judge  Dillon  equally  culpable,  Judge  Love  cited  attention  to  the  records  of 
the  court,  there  and  then  open  to  the  inspection  of  all,  as  directly  contradicting  all 
the  charges  and  as  thoroughly  rebuking  all  the  aspersions  made  concerning  the 
acts  of  Judge  Dillon  in  the  premises.  Nor  was  this  all.  The  members  of  the  Bar 
recognized  the  fact  that  they,,  too,  had  a  duty  to  perform.  They  not  only  adopted 
a  series  of  resolutions  expressive  of  their  sense  of  the  outrage  to  the  judiciary  per 
petrated  in  the  libels  uttered1  against  Judge  Dillon,  but  they  took  steps  to  at  once 
arraign  the  authors  of  those  libels  before  the  tribunals  of  their  country,  for  just 
condemnation  and  punishment.  This  action,  if  pressed  forward  to  a  legitimate 
conclusion,  will,  we  may  certainly  hope,  secure  just  the  results  now  alone  needed. 
Judge  Dillon  is  fully  exculpated  from  even  the  shadow  of  suspicion  in  any  partic 
ular.  In  his  behalf  not  another  word  need  be  said.  But  the  interests  of  justice  and  • 
due  regard  for  the  honor  of  the  judiciary,  demand  that  the  originators  of  the 
slanders  against  Judge  Dillon  and  the  United  States  Court  be  ferreted  out  and 
punished  as  they  deserve. 

It  is  also  worth  while  to-  observe,  and  with  due  particularity,  the  thoroughness 
of  the  vindication  secured  to  Hon.  J.  B.  Grinnell,  the  much  maligned  receiver  of 
the  Central  Railroad  of  Iowa.  The  report  made  to  the  court  on  Friday,  by  the 
master  appointed  to  make  a  thorough  examination  into  the  management  of  that 
road  shows  that  Mr.  Grinnell  has  not  only  honestly,  but  wisely  and  well,  adminis 
tered  the  entire  charge  committed  to  his  hands.  As  an  honored  citizen  of  Iowa 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  Mr.  Grinnell  has  won  a  reputation  for  sterling  integrity 
which  is  now  only  made  the  more  conspicuous  by  reason  of  the  assaults  upon  his 
character,  now  shown  to  have  been  entirely  groundless  and  unjustifiable. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Agricultural  Affairs —  Wool-Growers'  Association  —  National  Dairy 
men 's  Fair  —  District  Fair  of  1859 —  Fine  Stock  Breeders' 
Society — Commissioner  on  Pleuro^neumonia  among  Cattle  — 
State  Horticultural  Society — American  Agricultural  Associa 
tion  —  State  Fair  of  1890  — •  Arboriculture  —  Fences  —  Protective 
Tariff. 


THE  formation  of  this  society  was  stimulated  by  addresses  and 
facts  related  to  sheep  husbandry.  This  was  the  argument  —  wool 
is  high;  millions  of  acres  covered  with  nutritious  grasses  are 
annually  burned  over ;  the  freighting  of  grain  as  a  gross  product, 
worth  a  cent  a  pound,  is  costly,  while  wool,  worth  fifty  cents  a 
pound,  incurred  but  a  small  per  cent,  of  its  value  in  finding  a 
market,  besides  stimulating  the  establishment  of  local  woolen  fac 
tories.  I  led  in  this  enterprise,  profitable  in  war  days. 

The  sheep  shearing  festival  at  Grinnell,  in  1865,  was  a  notable 
event.  There  were  competitors  for  premiums  in  shearing,  and  I 
was  bantered  to  enter  the  list  with  shears,  which  I  did.  It  was  a 
dignified  employment,  not  disturbed  by  the  political  correspondent, 
who  reported  that  the  honorable  member  of  Congress  was  dipping 
sheep  in  tobacco  juice.  It  was  rather  a  compliment  gained  with 
out  cost,  and  the  competitive  sheep-shearer  was  the  president  of 
the  State  Wool  Growers'  Association.  He  was  able  to  show  won 
derful  blood  in  his  flocks,  and  the  largest  and  most  valuable  fleeces 
grown.  The  awards  made  are  not  material ;  the  winners  are  dead, 
and  most  of  the  flocks  have  moved  on  westward,  where  there  is  a 
dawn  of  an  interest  which  I  had  done  all  I  could  to  promote  by 
precept  and  by  example,  as  the  owner  of  as  high  as  six  thousand 
sheep,  and  the  importer  from  other  states  of  many  times  that 
number. 

Here  may  be  introduced  some  compliments  to  the  sheep,  occa- 


308  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

sioned  by  my  national  prize  essay.  Dr.  J.  M.  Shaffer,  long  the 
efficient  secretary  of  the  Iowa  State  Board  of  Agriculture,  in  his 
address  on  the  subject,  said,  "The  Hon.  J.  B.  Grinnell,  of  Powe- 
shiek  County,  Iowa,  has  written  an  excellent  treatise  on  '  Sheep  on 
the  Prairies7,  which  may  be  consulted  with  profit  by  every  man 
that  owns  a  sheep  in  the  north-west.  Being  a  practical  wool- 
grower,  his  instructions  are  of  incalculable  benefit.  He  does  not 
indulge  in  fanciful  speculations,  but  details  experiences,  summons 
figures,  and  makes  deductions  which  a  wayfaring  man  need  not 
misunderstand." 

In  recognition  of  service  and  study  connected  with  this  indus 
try,  I  was  appointed  special  commissioner  to  classify  wools,  in  the 
New  York  Custom  House.  It  may  be  added  here  that,  after  the 
fall  in  the  price  of  wools,  I  released  all  my  renters  from  their  con 
tracts,  which,  if  enforced,  wonld  have  realized  large  sums. 

At  the  sheep-shearing  festival  above  mentioned,  a  poem  was 
given  by  Prof.  H.  W.  Parker,  of  the  college  —  an  apt  effusion  of  a 
genius,  applauded  by  the  crowd.  It  was  as  follows : 

POEM    ON    THE    SHEEP. 


My  merciless  friend,  our  worthy  M.  C., 
Has  assigned  a  few  rhymes  on  sheep  to  me, 
Which,  for  obvious  reasons  —  name  and  pluck 
Had  better  been  laid  on  our  neighbor  B — k. 
Of  him,  without  doubt,  my  friend  was  shy 
From  fear  of  some  ifs  and  butts  in  reply  — 
So  called  for  my  Pegasus,  formerly  gay, 
Now  quite  too  steady  to  ever  say  neigh. 

Thou  muse  —  who  erst  on  Arcadian  hills 
Breathed  through  the  pastoral  pipe  in  trills 
That  drew  the  flock,  or  in  later  time 
Inspired  sweet  Maro's  bucolic  rhyme 
(I  mean  rhythm)  —  with  thine  my  spirit  steep, 
Who  fain  would  sing  of  the  innocent  sheep. 

All  ages  past  have  sounded  their  praise ; 
What  more  can  we  do  than  to  echo  the  lays? 
What  note  of  discordance  was  ever  heard  — 
What  but  a  single  unfortunate  word  — 
The  epithet  "  sheepish  "  —  and  that  is  a  slur 
That  rightly  belongs  to  the  villainous  cur  — 
The  shepherd's  pest,  the  world's  disgrace, 
The  dog,  with  conscious  shame  in  his  face, 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEAES.  309 

Slinking  away  from  his  bloody  feast. 
Away  with  the  treacherous  cowardly  beast ! 
Hound,  spaniel,  terrier,  mastiff  and  all. 
I  would  that  our  nation's  powder  and  ball, 
Not  needed  to  free  us  from  something  worse, 
Might  be  spent  to  remove  our  canine  curse, 
Except,  of  course,  the  shepherd's  help 
Which  is  never  a  sly  and  scoundrel  whelp. 


There  was  another  opprobrious  phrase  — 
"  Woolly-head  "  —  uttered  in  by-gone  days 
When  men  were  counted  no  better  than  sheep ; 
We  will  not  revive  it,  but  let  it  sleep. 
Yet,  one  little  truth  the  people  should  heed  — 
That  black  was  no  doubt  the  original  breed ; 
And  the  dusky  lamb  but  reverts  to  the  type 
Whence  came  our  fine  flocks  of  every  stripe ; 
And  even  the  Merino's  wool  is  known 
To  change  to  hair  in  a  foreign  zone. 


Ah !  gentle  muse !  this  doggerel  strain 
Wakes  not  the  soft  melody  of  old  again. 
Can'st  not  discourse  of  the  Golden  Fleece 
Which  led  afar  a  brave  youth  of  Greece, 
The  world-famed  Jason  ?    No  song  of  the  flock 
But  must  have  that  for  its  capital  stock. 
Say,  who  was  Jason  ?    What  was  the  prize 
That  shone  at  last  to  his  wishful  eyes  ? 
And  where  did  he  roam  in  his  valiant  quest  ? 
Where  wandered  save  here  in  the  glorious  West  ? 


For  here  is  the  Eden  of  pasture  ground, 
The  broadest  and  richest  that  man  has  found ; 
And  here  the  grass  shall  turn  to  gold, 
And  be  in  full  fleece  together  rolled ; 
Here  in  the  land  of  the  setting  sun, 
Each  fleecy  cloud,  when  the  day  is  done, 
Is  a  glowing  sign  of  our  wealth's  increase, 
And  marks  the  home  of  the  Golden  Fleece. 


Then  down  with  the  lordship  of  cotton  and  oil, 

And  down  with  shoddy  and  ill-gotten  spoil ! 

And  long  live  the  true  nobility  of  wool, 

Its  escutcheon  adorned  with  the  shearing  tool ; 

And  long  live  the  sheep  with  his  precious  fleece, 

The  emblem  of  innocence,  wealth  and  peace  — 

The  symbol,  still  more,  of  a  higher  life, 

In  a  world  where  crime  is  unknown,  and  strife ; 

There  in  green  fields  the  Good  Shepherd  leads 

The  Flock  that  on  heavenly  pasture  feeds. 


310  EEMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY  TEAES. 

THE    NATIONAL    DAIRYMEN'S    FAIR. 

This  was  held  at  the  American  Institute,  New  York,  in  1879. 
It  developed  into  a  proud  day  for  Iowa  in  taking  prizes  for  cream 
ery  butter.  The  following  are  outlines  from  the  New  York  Trib 
une,  of  my  impromptu  speech,  which  was  commended  by  the 
agricultural  press.  It  was  intended  as  at  once  a  blow  at  the  bogus 
article,  oleomargarine,  and  in  praise  of  Iowa  products  and  men : 

I  regret  that  on  so  short  a  notice  you  have  called  me  to  stand  in  the  place  of 
Mr.  Evarts,  the  distinguished  secretary  of  state.  But  I  am  not  vain  enough  to 
attempt  to  fill  his  place.  It  would  have  detracted  nothing  from  the  fame  of  the 
learned  cabinet  officer  had  he  advised  you  of  his  ability  to  maintain  his  Vermont 
farm  by  the  aid  of  his  salary.  Many  diplomats  and  quasi  farmers  have  even  failed 
to  prove  Ben.  Franklin's  maxim :  "  He  that  by  the  plow  would  thrive,  must  either 
hold  or  drive."  Theorists,  however,  have  made  able  contributions  to  rural  litera 
ture,  and  have  in  life's  evening  gladly  hied  away  to  the  farm  to  find  pleasures 
denied  a  public  servant,  thus  following  the  example  of  the  historic  sage  and 
ploughman. 

The  first  impression  here  no  orator  can  describe  in  speech.  It  is  dark  night 
without,  and  you  could  only  learn  it  by  consulting  your  watch,  for  these  electric 
lights  as  a  modern  wonder  outshine  the  sun  at  mid-day,  showing  plainly  the  apex 
of  the  cheese  obelisk,  though  forty  feet  high,  and  the  longest  "Dairy-maid's 
needle  "  ever  pointed  heavenward.  The  texture  of  the  butter  is  seen  without  a 
microscope,  to  give  conjecture  how  exquisite  must  be  its  taste,  and  the  girls  in 
attention  to  their  little  industries  connected  with  the  rural  arts,  have  not  spilled 
the  milk  which  the  old  spelling  book  pictured,  on  the  ground,  blasting  the  hopes 
of  the  dairymaid ;  they  are  happy.  Necromancer,  as  farmer,  with  churn  and  curd, 
plies  his  trade  with  more  than  the  skill  of  an  amateur.  All  the  kine  are  glossy  in 
this  magic  gleam,  and  the  water  jetting  and  music  can  only  briefly  cease  their  flow 
for  the  prose  of  speech. 

The  learner  here  passes  from  theory  to  accomplishment,  seeing  the  best  of  one 
of  our  great  industries  from  many  states  —  a  farmer's  college  with  short  sessions 
and  enthusiastic  professors  taking  you  to  the  original  sources ;  the  very  cows  of 
most  approved  grades,  and  genteel  manners,  are  proof  that  kindness  conquers  all. 

It  is  common  in  this  too  suspecting  world  to  ascribe  sordid  or  bad  motives  to 
good  acts,  and  lest  I  forget  it  let  me  now  say,  they  who  furnish  rational  entertain 
ment  are  public  benefactors.  So  I  would  have  remembered  the  inaugurators  of 
this  Fair,  and  their  generous  premiums,  and  entertainments,  bringing  our  rural 
people  near  the  commercial  heart  of  the  nation. 

You  ask  little  of  us  in  the  far  West,  but  Col.  B.  M.  Littler,  of  my  state,  needs 
no  introduction  as  a  gentleman  of  genius  and  enterprise,  acting  as  an  officer  and 
orator,  as  a  pastime.  He  is  worth  an  army  of  philosophic  dreamers,  whom  Emer 
son  describes,  "Biting  their  thumbs  in  the  morning  to  find  whether  they  were  in 
the  me  or  the  not-me  world  " ;  and  our  other  representatives  from  Iowa  are  the 
exhibitors  who  have  taken  the  premiums.  I  have  wired  the  press  of  my  state  that 
they  are  of  the  first,  and  a  round  dozen  in  number  an.d  in  value,  far  more  than  of 
any  other  state,  "  Excelsior  "  New  York  not  excepted.  It  is  my  fortune  to  control 
that  sweepstakes  butter  package  made  by  John  Stewart,  of  Anamosa,  Iowa,  whom 
you  have  just  cheered,  and  here  it  will  be  eaten  with  an  epicurean  smack,  saying, 
"  I  know  what  is  what,  I  know  on  which  side  my  bread  is  buttered  ".  It  will  be 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS.  311 

found  genuine,  a  rich  conscription  from  our  soil,  where  the  "paths  drop  fatness", 
growing  nutritious  grasses,  and  the  corn  which  imparts  flavor  and  richness  to  the 
fluid  by  the  kine,  which  tidy  hands  and  practiced  labor  and  skill  bring  to  your 
senses  as  the  coveted  golden  creamery  product  —  the  gild  of  our  commonest  food, 
bread  the  staff  of  life.  Competitors,  courageous  and  honorable,  though  defeated, 
know  these  excellencies  are  not  of  chance ;  pains  and  gains  are  usually  brothers. 
The  West  may  have  learned  neatness  through  Eastern  lineage,  also  to  labor  for  an 
end.  Then  a  proper  temperature  is  a  necessity,  and  salt  the  purest,  but,  whether 
in  limestone  or  sandstone  district,  ample  corn  food  will  impart  a  rich  color,  flavor 
and  substance,  which  is  wanting  where  this  cereal  is  unused  as  food. 

So  say  the  experts,  and  there  is  a  promise  that  our  Iowa,  raising  one-seventh  of 
all  the  corn  in  the  nation,  will  not  be  left  out.  She  has  a  welcome  for  dairymen, 
now  on  lean  soils,  and  with  leaner  kine,  to  settle  on  her  ample  area  in  the  dairy 
man's  paradise  —  the  Mississippi  valley,  where  are  cheap  lands,  ample  grasses  and 
grains,  a  healthful  home  for  the  valued  animal  races,  and  the  coveted  conditions 
for  even  better  qualities  and  larger  quantities. 

Oleomargarine,  the  bogus  article,  claims  a  word.  I  hear,  as  now  shown  and 
tasted,  that  it  will  glut  the  butter  market.  No  doubt  it  is  an  ingenious  counter 
feit,  and  that  by  admixtures  and  chemical  science  it  may  challenge  detection,  for 
it  is  a  divine  prediction  that  the  time  will  come  when  the  false  will  possibly 
"deceive  the  very  elect".  Good  citizens  are  engaged  in  the  fabrication.  Yes, 
Brutus  is  "an  honorable  man ",  but  the  impression  depends  on  the  accent.  Good 
food-maker,  he  may  be  of  a  class ;  not  so  of  his  imitators,  and  the  dealers ;  they  will 
be  tempted  above  what  they  are  able  to  bear ;  and  only  a  law  against  the  bogus,  or 
the  aid  of  experts,  will  be  able  to  separate  the  precious  from  the  vile.  Then  there 
will  be  less  used  of  the  genuine.  An  immemorial  confidence  in  that  which  was 
called  butter  will  give  way  to  distrust,  and  a  gentleman  must  use  well  his  olfacto 
ries  and  palate,  or  call  in  an  expert,  before  he  seats  his  table  guests,  in  fear  of 
imposition,  or  that  his  steward  is  in  corrupt  league  with  the  grocer. 

I  am  asked,  "  Why  decry  without  knowledge  ?  "  Who  wants  a  substitute  for  the 
traditional  articles  distilled  by  natural  processes,  like  the  pure  water  by  the  clouds 
—  heaven's  distilleries.  The  name  means  nothing.  May  you  never  learn  to  pro 
nounce  it.  It  is  not  found  in  dictionaries,  and  the  first  of  linguistic  scholars  can 
only  affirm  Ole  is  for  oil,  margarine  may  be  suet,  lard,  or  a  conglomeration  from 
every  kingdom  in  nature  —  a  counterfeit  tolerated  never  by  refined  sensibilities, 
where  the  unadulterated  creamery  in  the  realm  of  table  food  has  no  rival  luxury. 
Our  delicious,  flavored  coffee  is  no  more  sipped  as  the  "  nectar  of  the  Gods  ",  when 
ground  with  peas,  and  tinctured  with  chicory.  No  longer  is  he  deemed  a  well- 
dressed  gentleman  in  shoddy,  which  is  but  worn  picked  rags,  the  counterfeit  of 
strong  wool.  True,  sordid  contractors  framed  excuses  in  giving  good  enough  for  the 
price  in  time  of  war,  but  the  apothecary  adulterating  drugs,  and  the  butter-maker 
counterfeiting,  to  cheapen,  by  Ole  and  margarine  mixtures  are  the  enemies  of  hon 
est  makers  and  legitimate  trade,  and  with  all  their  professions  of  honor  they  invite 
the  execrations  heaped  on  the  shallow  hypocrite  of  the  early  time,  shouting,  "  Tom, 
have  you  watered  the  rum?"  "Yes  sir."  "Sanded  the  sugar?"  "Yes  sir." 
"  Then  turn  the  key  and  come  to  prayers."  I  forbear.  These  skillful  attempts  in 
counterfeiting  only  prove  the  value  of  the  genuine. 

The  farmer  feeds  all,  and  competitive  fairs  like  this  stimulate  the  production 
of  those  articles  which  bring  national  wealth  and  the  balance  of  trade.  We  are 
illustrating  what  can  be  done  by  industry  and  skill,  on  a  scale  which  will  be  a  fur 
ther  astonishment  to  the  older  nations.  No  people  in  this  century  have  added  so 
much  per  capita  to  their  wealth  as  ours  in  this  eventful  '79,  and  contributing  most 
to  it  has  been  the  economy  and  industry  of  the  farmers. 


312  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETT   YEARS. 

DISTRICT    FAIK. 

The  great  district  fair  at  Cedar  Falls,  in  1859,  brought  out  the 
following  address,  the  first  I  ventured  upon,  of  that  class  printed 
and  circulated  by  order  of  the  state  in  a  volume: 

"  The  first  three  men  of  the  world  were  —  a  gardener,  a  plough 
man  and  a  grazier;  and  these  vocations  were  not  of  choice,  but 
were  themselves  the  symbols  of  honor,  and  suggestive  of  man's 
necessities.  The  ploughman  became  a  murderer,  and  the  man  was 
marked  with  the  brand  of  enduring  infamy ;  but  his  vocation  has 
become  more  honorable,  from  the  day  Ceres  instructed  Triptolemus, 
and  gave  him  her  chariot  that  he  might  travel  over  the  world  and 
give  instructions  in  agriculture  to  a  rude  people,  who,  until  then, 
had  lived  upon  acorns  and  the  roots  of  the  earth.  The  old  Koman 
Cincinnatus,  who  laid  by  the  sceptre  of  power  for  the  plow,  though 
finding  but  few  imitators,  is  associated  with  the  brave  Putnam, 
who  left  his  plow  in  the  furrow  at  the  call  of  his  country,  and  that 
model  farmer,  'the  father  of  his  country',  refusing  a  crown  that 
he  might  enjoy  the  quiet  of  home  and  that  profession  which  his 
example  almost  canonizes. 

"Rude  agricultural  life  had  its  attractions  and  privileges,  but 
for  us  there  are  substantial  benefits,  advantages  and  acquirements, 
in  the  legacies  of  experience  and  the  contributions  of  science, 
which  the  enthusiasts  of  earlier  days  did  not,  in  their  wildest 
reveries,  dream  of  as  the  heritage  of  later  generations. 

"  Utility  should  not  yield  to  ornament ;  of  this  there  does  not 
seem  to  be  immediate  danger.  Passing  most  of  our  farms,  you 
would  judge  there  was  only  a  rage  for  wide  fields,  and  large  wheat 
and  corn  crops.  The  farm,  the  house  and  surroundings,  seem  to 
furnish  evidence  of  a  lack  of  those  efforts  which  would  cause  the 
home  to  be  parted  with  in  regret.  Noble  trees  are  felled  when 
they  should  have  stood  as  ornaments;  the  prairie  is  as  naked  as  in 
nature ;  root  crops,  because  they  can  be  eaten,  usurp  the  place  of 
fragrant  flowers  in  yard  and  garden.  The  house  is  as  innocent  of 
paint  as  mother  Eve  was  of  rouge  or  silks.  Random  shooting  and 
juvenile  sportsmen  drive  away  every  bird  that  comes  to  build  its 
nest  in  proximity  to  the  home,  promising  morning  music  gratis. 
Plant  trees,  cultivate  flowers,  and  make  the  birds  -so  brimfull  of 
gladness  and  love ',  at  home  !  The  trees  will  soon  shelter  yourself 
and  dwelling,  and  in  evening  murmur  forth  the  music  of  friends ; 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    TEARS.  313 

and  when  the  pioneer  and  roaming  spirit  burns  in  the  bones,  the 
graceful  trees,  clustering  vines  reared  by  your  own  hand,  caroling 
birds  at  the  window,  and  the  music  of  <  sweet  home '  within,  will 
exorcise  the  spirits  which  picture  a  paradise  in  some  distant 
Nebraska  or  Utah,  and  banish  those  enemies  and  demons  of  unrest 
which  demonstrate  so  often  in  our  state,  that  { three  moves  are  as 
bad  as  a  fire'.  Home  attractions  will  secure  permanency  of  abode; 
and  the  children  will  sigh  for  no  other  home,  finding  contentment 
where  a  church,  school  and  elevating  associations  are  found. 

"The  simple  roller  and  the  drill  can  nowhere  be  used  with  such 
satisfactory  results,  as  on  the  loose  soil  of  the  prairies.  We  owe  a 
debt  of  gratitude  to  the  inventors  of  numerous  reapers  and  mow 
ers,  which  later  generations  will  more  fitly  express  than  we  who 
are  yet  gazing  with  delight  upon  their  almost  magical  achieve 
ments.  The  harvest  song  is  yet  unwritten  which  is  fit  to  be 
re-echoed  to  the  music  of  a  reaper,  which  makes  a  mock  of  acres, 
causing  the  farmer's  long  days  of  drudgery,  in  gathering  grain,  to 
be  changed  into  a  brief  pastime. 

"Those  wind-mills  which  harness  the  air,  dispensing  with  an 
engine,  while  they  send  to  the  surface*  the  flowing,  perpetual 
springs,  and  furnish  motive  power  to  flour  our  wheat,  are  quite 
sure  to  become  favorites  on  our  prairies,  where  ^Eolus  of  the  winds 
may  continue  his  reign,  never  out  of  season,  more  prized  for  utility 
than  the  bland  air  of  the  morning  for  pleasure. 

"The  lords  of  creation  are  not  alone  in  the  appropriation  of 
inventions.  Sweeter  than  parlor  music  to  mothers  and  daughters, 
on  whom  the  monotony  and  toil  of  pioneer  life  falls  heaviest,  is 
the  merry  click  of  the  sewing  machines.  Such  blessings  they 
dispense,  giving  to  the  fair  of  our  households  time  for  relaxation 
and  mental  culture.  Let  the  machine,  beside  the  piano,  indicate 
woman's  emancipation. 

It  becomes  a  duty  to  seek  a  broad  and  liberal  culture  and  create 
a  sentiment  which  will  dignify  labor.  Our  schools  must  be  cher 
ished,  and  that  great  principle  that  property  should  educate  our 
youth.  The  power  of  a  people  lies  in  its  mind ;  their  forces  will 
be  proportioned  to  proper  cultivation.  No  brave  of  the  Indian 
race  has  been  an  inventor.  The  barbarian  or  semi-civilized  have 
not  added  to  our  stock  of  ideas  during  this  century.  I  deem  it  a 
more  practical  work  to  adorn  and  build  school-houses,  than  to  sing 
peans  to  our  union.  A  people  with  generous  culture  will  be  fore- 


314  REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

warned  of  danger  to  their  institutions,  and  strike  at  the  evils  which 
threaten,  rather  than  be  thrown  into  a  frenzy  by  passionate  and 
mercenary  appeals.  It  is  not  enough  to  be  the  equal  of  those 
whom  we  have  left  of  the  brotherhood  in  the  older  states.  We 
are  moulding  institutions,  rather  than  founding  where  there  are 
none;  and  there  should  be  such  that  ' heaven  will  look  down  to 
see'. 

"All  about  us  are  the  emigrant  races,  expecting  to  do  more  for 
their  country  and  themselves,  in  a  brief  lifetime,  than  is  achieved 
in  the  staid  communities  where  men  die  full  of  years,  un  subjected 
to  our  excitements  and  trials.  A  change  of  the  tree  from  a  sterile 
soil  to  ours  rich  and  deep,  implies  improvement;  and  ought  not 
intelligence  to  be  advanced,  insuring  power  in  every  right  direc 
tion,  standing  on  these  summits  of  opportunity  in  this  'promised 
land '  ?  I  know  that  school-houses  have  not  as  a  rule  been  superior 
to  barns  for  the  brute,  in  architectural  taste  and  comfort,  and  that 
labor  is  called  menial  service.  But  productive  labor  is  esteemed 
honorable  where  a  community  is  aroused  to  the  worth  of  practical 
education  for  man  with  his  varied  wants;  and  proper,  attractive 
school-houses  and  institutions  of  learning,  are  soon  to  supplant 
those  which  are  a  burlesque  on  our  vaunted  progress.  And  still 
it  is  for  the  people  to  demand. 

"  The  governments  of  the  old  world  are  more  liberal  patrons  of 
agriculture  than  ours ;  yet  $1,000,000  is  not  a  large  appropriation 
for  a  city  custom  house,  and  tens  of  millions  annually  hardly  suffice 
for  the  army  and  navy  —  those  'horse-leeches'  of  the  treasury.  It 
becomes  a  duty  to  create  a  public  sentiment  which  will  not  allow 
the  agricultural  and  mechanical  interests  of  our  people  to  be  over 
looked  at  Washington.  Diffuse  intelligence  in  regard  to  our 
Farmer's  College,  that  it  may  be  tested  and  become,  what  it  may 
become,  a  boon  to  us  and  our  children." 

IOWA    FINE    STOCK    BREEDER'S    ASSOCIATION. 

With  this  I  was  associated,  as  donor,  speaker  and  president. 
The  state  prints  officially  its  proceedings ;  cities  are  clamorous  to 
entertain  by  banquet  and  honors  the  first  gentlemen  of  the  state, 
who  have  brought  renown  and  assistance  to  the  vocation  of  our 
farmers. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  315 

Of  one  of  the  meetings  of  the  association,  my  reminiscences  are 
assisted  by  the  following  extract  from  the  report  published : 

Mr.  Grinnell,  inclined  as  he  is  to  always  look  on  the  sunny  side  of  this  world's 
life,  had  prepared  a  paper  on,  "  The  Bright  Side",  and  attention  was  given  it  at 
this  time.  It  was  too  long  for  use  in  full  in  these  columns,  but  the  "  cold  facts", 
on  which  the  eloquent  enthusiasm  of  the  paper  was  founded  are  herewith  appended : 

"  I  have  no  purpose  to  explain  the  cause  of  the  present  stagnation  and  bad 
market,  nor  to  mention  the  omens  of  a  brighter  day  for  our  animal  industry,  but  I 
shall  by  the  mention  of  certain  facts  seek  to  prove  that  we  have  greater  occasion 
for  good  cheer  than  for  despondency.  First  I  notice  the  favoring  conditions :  The 
debtor  class  is  found  in  the  enterprising  West,  and  money  was  obtained  by  the 
borrower  on  the  surety  of  farm  and  stock  at  a  very  much  higher  rate  fifteen  and 
twenty  years  ago  than  now.  Necessary  haying,  harvesting  and  cultivating  machin 
ery  was  bought  years  ago  at  fifty  per  cent,  higher  rates  than  now.  Staple  fencing, 
which  is  barbed  wire,  cost  more  at  the  factory  by  one  hundred  and  fifty  per  cent, 
twelve  and  fifteen  years  ago  than  now.  Necessary  clothing  cost  more  by  fifty  per 
cent,  fifteen  and  twenty  years  ago.  Heavy  wagons  now  at  sixty  dollars,  horse  shoes 
at  sixty  cents  for  a  span  of  horses,  and  steel  nails  at  three  cents  per  pound  by  the 
keg,  cost  fifty  to  seventy-five  per  cent,  more  fifteen  years  ago  than  now.  Articles 
common  to  the  farmer's  table  —  salt,  sugar,  tea  and  coffee  —  cost  more  by  from 
thirty  to  fifty  per  cent.,  the  average  quotations,  for  the  last  fifteen  years,  than  now. 
Transportation  rates  on  railways  are  reduced  on  the  average  allowed  granger  tariff 
in  1870  and  1871  from  two  cents  and  a  fraction  to  one  and  a  fraction  per  ton  per 
mile  in  1884,  showing  that  the  maximum  rate  was  ninety- four  per  cent,  higher  than 
the  present.  This  mention  does  not  imply  that  stock  rates  to  Chicago  are  not  now 
burdensomely  high.  On  interstate  freight  originating  in  Iowa,  live  stock  and  the 
like,  finding  a  market  at  the  seaboard,  the  charges  fourteen  years  ago  were  greater 
by  ninety-five  per  cent,  than  those  of  1885.  Second,  the  discoveries  of  the  last  fif 
teen  and  twenty  years  have  materially  reduced  the  cost  of  raising  animals.  Our 
grass  crop  is  heavier  by  the  mixture  of  many  varieties  on  the  same  soil  —  instead 
of  one,  six — thus  adapting  our  pastures,  to  extreme  seasons  and  to  the  epicurean 
tastes  of  the  animals.  Another  is  the  greater  profits  found  in  the  early  maturity  of 
bovines  and  swine  for  the  shambles.  Third,  the  possibility  of  protection  by  timber 
belts  and  artificial  groves  is  a  discovery  which  tempers  the  cold  for  safer  and  more 
profitable  animal  development.  Arboriculture  at  Mason  City  brings  equal  com 
fort  with  natural  woody  shelter  at  Ottumwa,  thus  extending  the  area  of  animal 
husbandry  by  millions  of  acres  and  adding  to  their  value  millions  of  dollars. 
Fourth ,  the  late  practical  inhibition  of  the  saloon  in  our  rural  districts  has  secured 
better  and  more  faithful  service  with  less  risk  to  the  flock.  To  the  keepers  of  herd 
and  the  stud,  inebriation  meant  imminent  danger  and  often  gross  neglect  with 
great  losses.  I  forbear  a  further  mention  of  substantial  facts  and  pleasing  dis 
coveries.  .  .  .  The  animal  industry  is  not  alone  depressed,  and  what  vocation 
gives  fairer  promise  ?  The  conditions  of  the  equine  industry  are  fair,  and  returns 
for  improved  stock  remunerative.  Are  there  ills  in  our  industry?  'Rather  bear 
the  ills  we  have  than  fly  to  those  we  know  not  of '.  Has  the  wheat-grower  of  tho 
North  or  by  the  Pacific  found  a  bonanza  or  independence  at  fifty  cents  a  bushel? 
But  the  ranges!  There  is  the  bovine  paradise,  and  the  refuge  for  the  poor  and 
desponding  herdsman!  Alas!  that  overcrowding  has  killed  the  native  grasses; 
that  strife  for  occupation  of  springs  and  sheltered  valleys  has  bred  hatred  and 
violence.  Brave  early  pioneers  have  realized  fortunes  in  nomadic  life  on  a  rising 
cattle  market,  but  in  this  day  of  depression,  the  want  of  care,  close  feeding  of 


316  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY  TEARS. 

grass,  drifting  before  storms,  and  the  cost  of  'round-ups',  not  only  have  cut  off 
the  profits  of  earlier  days,  but  brought  humanity  to  face  suffering  and  losses  which 
appall.  .  .  .  Fellow-farmers,  look  up !  The  clouds  are  breaking.  The  care  of 
a  granger,  the  courage  of  a  patriot,  and  the  pluck  of  a  man  will  early  win  success 
for  our  animal  industry." 

Discussion  was  general  on  this  paper,  the  optimistic  views  expressed  by  Mr. 
Grinnell  not  meeting  with  a  great  deal  of  favor  at  the  hands  of  those  who  spoke. 
Indeed,  while  the  facts  as  stated  were  admitted  to  be  substantially  correct,  there 
was  such  a  recital  of  grievances  suffered  by  the  farming  community  that  one  might 
almost  imagine  it  to  be  an  echo  of  the  mutterings  of  discontent  at  the  existing 
state  of  affairs  heard  at  meetings  of  a  certain  class  confined  chiefly  to  large  cities. 
The  attempt  was  made  to  figure  out  what  became  of  the  difference  between  the 
selling  price  of  the  raw  material  as  produced  by  the  farmer,  and  the  cost  price  of 
the  finished  product  as  laid  before  him  for  purchase.  In  the  case  of  wheat  and 
flour,  one  or  two  expert  mathematicians  figured  out  clearly  that  the  miller  was  the 
man  who  was  absorbing  these  large  margins,  which  brought  two  millers  to  their 
feet,  and,  amid  considerable  amusement,  with  hands  on  their  pocket-books,  they 
solemnly  declared  that  the  large  profits  spoken  of  were  not  there,  and  with  com 
plete  unanimity  shifted  the  charge  from  their  shoulders  to  the  middleman,  who 
sells  the  flour.  Here  it  was  finally  left,  probably  because  none  of  those  much- 
abused  middlemen  were  present  to  defend  themselves. 

As  president  of  the  Fine  Stock  Breeder's  Association  of  Iowa, 
I  had  reasonable  pride  in  the  fact  that  a  needful  gift,  and  the  cheer 
of  speech,  lifted  the  society  from  a  rut  up  to  the  front  rank.  It 
enlists  the  best  writers,  talkers  and  active  stock  raisers.  The  state 
publishes  its  annual  proceedings,  even  the  banquet  speeches,  and 
the  reports  are  in  great  demand.  This  is  gratifying  to  me  as  the 
one  who  brought  the  first  Devon  to  this  state,  and  introduced  the 
Normans  and  Clydes,  the  highest  prized  of  stock  in  the  state. 

AN    UNSOUGHT    NATIONAL    COMPLIMENT. 

It  was  by  the  representatives  of  twenty  states,  meeting  in 
1884,  and  presided  over  by  United  States  Senator  Williams  of 
Kentucky.  There  was  feverish  anxiety  in  regard  to  the  pleuro- 
pneumonia  among  cattle,  threatening  a  thousand  millions  of  prop 
erty,  and  making  a  demand  for  national  legislation. 

Who  should  conduct  the  committee  and  secure  the  passage  of  a 
bill  in  the  crisis  ?  I  was  not  in  the  convention  to  decline  the  first 
of  all  compliments  by  my  countrymen.  It  involved  a  bill,  which 
provided  a  commission  and  an  appropriation  of  a  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  To  it  I  gave  months  of  time  in  Washington,  and  many 
expenses  from  my  own  purse.  Oh,  what  delays  and  vexations! 
But  I  was  permitted  to  serve  our  great  industry  still  further  by  a 
complimentary  appointment  from  the  commissioner  of  agriculture, 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS.  317 

to  the  first  position  of  honor  and  responsibility  and  of  Western 
observation,  held  with  pleasure  up  to  the  time  of  Cleveland,  when 
I  resigned.  The  action  taken  and  the  reports  made,  from  time  to 
time,  in  fulfillment  of  this  important  trust,  are  on  record  and  need 
not  be  repeated  here. 

THE    STATE    HORTICULTURAL    SOCIETY. 

To  the  proceedings  of  this  society  I  refer  for  contributions  on 
topics  related  to  its  aims,  especially  certain  essays  on  tree-culture 
and  fence-economy,  which  were  widely  copied,  East  and  West,  as 
taking  advanced  positions  on  these  subjects.  Not  professing  to  be 
an  expert  in  fruit-culture,  I  can  claim  to  have  been  the  first  to  sup 
ply  my  vicinity  with  abundance  of  apple-seeds  and  laboriously 
grafted  stock,  as  already  mentioned.  The  first  whose  name  appears 
on  the  role  of  the  Iowa  society's  life-members,  as  president  I  was 
fortunate  in  securing  for  Iowa  the  gold  medal  for  the  best  apples 
exhibited  by  the  national  society  at  its  Richmond  meeting.  Mark 
Miller,  as  secretary  of  our  association,  was  fitted  out  to  make  the 
collection  from  our  fruit-growers,  and  it  cost  me  less  than  two  hun 
dred  dollars,  while  the  result  was  worth  many  thousands  of  dol 
lars  in  advertising  our  state. 

In  this  connection,  I  cannot  omit  a  deserved  tribute  to  our 
devoted  and  eminent  horticulturist,  the  late  Suel  Foster,  of  Mus- 
catine,  as  published  by  me  at  the  time  of  his  death : 

Truly  one  of  our  historic  personages  has  fallen,  worn  with  dutiful  toil  and 
crowned  with  honor.  Before  the  advent  of  railways,  heat,  nor  cold,  nor  storms, 
deterred  him  from  long  journeys  where  the  trees,  flowers,  farm,  education,  moral 
ity  and  religion  were  to  be  discussed,  and  plans  laid  for  the  advancement  of  the 
state  and  the  weal  of  our  race.  He  labored  with  enthusiasm  for  the  Agricultural 
College  as  an  officer;  made  fruit-growing  and  tree-planting  an  honored  vocation 
by  his  writings,  example,  and  his  broad  views  as  president  of  the  State  Horticul 
tural  Society;  a  lecturer  without  pay;  a  critic  of  shams  in  fearless  exposure;  in 
feeling,  a  radical  democrat  save  in  politics.  He  won  the  favor  of  true  gentlemen 
in  the  ranks  of  advanced  science  and  progressive  thought. 

As  an  early  writer,  I  associate  him  with  the  lamented  Governor  Grimes,  Mark 
Miller  and  others,  and  even  their  superior  in  originality  and  practical  results  at 
his  beautiful  home;  with  national  association  as  the  champion  of  the  Wealthy 
apple  and  the  vigorous,  beautiful  Catalpa ;  commemorated  by  ten  thousand  fields 
which  may  sing  his  praises  by  the  soft  breezes  in  the  branches  of  the  arboreal 
blessings  he  above  all  others  has  brought  to  our  state. 

I  cannot  say  he  made  no  mistakes ;  that  can  without  praise  be  said  of  those 
who  attempt  little,  but  his  forecast  as  a  citizen,  patriotic  ardor  and  generous  emo 
tion,  flowing  from  his  pen,  and  gems  of  wit  and  thought  in  conventions,  would, 


318  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

gathered  in  a  volume,  be  historic.    He  was  an  enthusiastic  scientist;  one  bold  to 
lead  where  others  were  asked  to  follow. 

THE    AMERICAN    AGRICULTURAL    ASSOCIATION. 

At  the  New  Orleans  meeting  in  1885,  I  received  an  unexpected 
election  to  the  presidency  at  this  association.  It  was  promotion 
from  vice-president  and  director.  The  following  resolves  were 
passed,  which  great  losses  on  the  ranges  have  proven  timely,  if 
•unheeded  by  the  government.  In  introducing  these  resolutions,  I 
said: 

We  are  owners  of  not  less  than  500,000,000  acres  of  pastoral,  non-agricultural 
lands,  being  in  Colorado  and  Nevada  and  the  Territories  of  Montana,  Idaho,  Utah, 
New  Mexico,  Wyoming  and  Arizona.  Want  of  water  invites  reservoirs,  irrigation 
and  windmills,  to  aid  in  the  support  of  5,000,000  of  people  instead  of  1,000,000,  and 
20,000,000  of  cattle  instead  of  5,000,000.  The  friction  of  the  small  herdsmen  and 
large  owners  under  a  grasping  spirit,  occasions  bad  blood,  violence,  loss  to  both 
parties,  and  a  border  warfare  to  be  more  dreaded  in  the  crowding,  which  involves 
loss  to  both  parties. 

This  domain  invites  skill  and  capital  in  the  application  of  water.  Thirst  pro 
motes  fever,  followed  by  death.  The  want  of  irrigation,  and  of  prepared  food,  like 
the  Alfalfa,  for  days  of  storms,  bring  great  losses,  while  the  dry  storm  cures  the 
grasses  for  rich  food,  to  be  of  more  value  than  the  pampas  grasses  rising  in  the 
moisture  of  South  America  or  the  verdure  on  the  steppes  of  Russia,  longer  covered 
by  winter  snows. 

The  pioneer,  with  few  cattle,  by  the  end  of  winter  is  eaten  out,  or  his  herd 
swept  with  the  thousands  before  the  storms.  Large  corporations,  without  title  or 
lease,  fail  to  make  homes,  shelters,  or  to  economize,  or  raise  the  water  for  herds. 
They  could  afford  to  pay  a  lease  of  a  few  cents  an  acre.  Good  society  and  social 
order  are  involved  in  an  apportionment  of  these  lands  by  natural  divisions  and 
value  as  to  water,  shelter  and  grasses.  The  rights  of  pioneers  and  pre-emptors  may 
be  of  value  under  a  lease  of  lands  not  worth  government  price. 

A  revenue  of  millions  may  be  raised,  giving  the  herdsmen  a  better  profit  by 
assured  possession.  Humanity  that  regards  the  brute  invites  care  and  new  meth 
ods.  An  area  larger  than  the  old  thirteen  states  invites  statesmanship  and  a 
liberal  system  of  leasing,  in  which  every  beef-eater  and  good  citizen  has  an 
interest. 

I  move  the  following  resolution,  [which  was  adopted  after  considerable 
discussion] : 

Whereas,  the  national  cattle  ranges  of  the  country  not  adapted  to  agriculture, 
occupied  by  pioneers,  pre-emptors  and  cattle  companies,  are  held  under  conflicting 
interests,  which  are  a  bar  to  permanent  improvements  and  the  proper  division  of 
the  water, and  soil,  involving  loss  to  both  parties;  therefore 

Resolved,  That  these  lands  should  be  held  as  a  national  trust  under  law  and 
order,  and  that,  with  a  just  supervision  by  a  board  of  commissioners  elected  by 
state  or  territory,  a  leasing  system  may  be  established  of  tracts  in  natural  divisions 
for  limited  periods  to  favor  development  and  prevent  the  friction  of  interests  and 
monopoly. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY  YEARS.  319 

STATE    FAIR,    1890. 

From  thirty  thousand  to  thirty-five  thousand  persons,  one  day, 
were  in  attendance.  It  may  be  my  last  speech  on  such  an  occa 
sion,  and  I  may  therefore  be  permitted  to  quote  from  the  State 
Register's  report:' 

Mr.  GrinnelPs  remarks  were  the  bit  of  sentiment  that  added  beauty  to  the 
exercises.  He  said  it  was  the  thirteenth  annual  fair  he  had  attended  in  Iowa. 
He  had  hardly  expected  to  attend  this  one,  but  he  thanked  providence  for  the 
privilege.  He  made  some  touching  remarks  in  regard  to  the  connection  of  Father 
Clarkson  with  the  agricultural  society,  saying : 

"  After  nearly  five  months  of  sickness,  I  can,  with  sensations  of  sadness,  cast  a 
laurel  sprig  on  the  yet  unsodded  grave  of  the  lamented  Father  Clarkson,  whom  a 
year  ago  we  greeted  with  applause.  Fittingly  have  President  Hayes  and  Judge 
Wright  paid  a  tribute  to  our  exemplary  farmer,  our  ablest  writer,  fearless  critic 
and  educator  by  the  press  for  a  fourth  of  a  century.  Time  will  only  add  luster  to 
his  character,  so  conspicuous  in  devotion  to  his  state  and  the  weal  of  his  race,  by 
an  illustrious  example  of  manhood  and  religious  trust.  Without  partiality  and 
with  just  pride,  even  with  gratitude,  I  can  speak  of  our  state  society,  the  people's 
college,  in  its  progress,  for  this  (too  often  a  speaker)  is  my  thirtieth  visit  on  the 
grounds.  What  changes!  In  early  days  few  exhibitors  and  small  premiums  were 
paid  often  ;  now,  ten  thousand  entries  and  thirty-five  thousand  dollars  to  be  paid 
in  premiums. 

"  Last  year  there  were  murmurers  over  small  prices  incident  to  over-production. 
They  are  no  more.  Under  favoring  skies  Iowa  will  have  more  dollars  for  a  smaller 
crop  than  last  year  for  a  large  one.  She  will  surpass  any  state  in  the  number  of 
bushels  of  corn,  and  can  show  in  value  of  the  pig  —  the  'gintleman  that  pays  the 
rint ',  a  larger  value  than  any  other  state.  So  of  the  equine,  not  only  by  the  race 
of  Axtell,  and  owner  Williams,  but  the  broad,  heavy-breasted  steeds.  Nor  does 
the  state  forget  our  Moninger  of  short-horn  fame,  and  the  leaders  sending  our  state 
far  in  the  front  rank  in  animal  industry  of  all  our  states.  An  enemy  of  our  statu 
tory  prohibition  gloated  over  Iowa's  loss  of  population,  when  our  real  gain  after 
peopling  the  Dakotas,  Kansas  and  Nebraska  has  been  three  hundred  thousand  in 
the  last  decade,  more  than  twenty  per  cent.  The  education  of  our  agricultural 
classes  has  been  even  greater  under  most  favored  moral  and  intellectual  instruc 
tion.  No  civilized  state  has  so  small  a  per  cent,  of  her  people  in  jails,  poor  houses 
and  prisons.  Even  greater  than  in  advancing  the  animal  races  has  been  the  prog 
ress  in  the  education  of  their  owners.  Temperance  has  played  its  part.  Free 
schools,  and  our  state  fair,  the  people's  college,  with  which  there  has  been  no 
scandal,  in  charge  of  a  line  of  gentleman  from  President  Hayes  and  Secretary 
Shaffer  backward,  worthy  to  be  in  the  line  of  princes.  Here  is  the  result  —  scene 
of  recreation,  sport  and  instruction,  in  honor  of  man's  first  and  noblest  vocation 
under  fortunate  skies,  where  restrained  by  laws  wise  and  lenient  to  the  good  and 
severe  to  the  evil-doer. 

"  Happy  for  Iowa  and  the  city  of  Des  Moines,  in  joint  contribution  they  have 
ornamented  these  romantic  and  embowered  acres  where  so  recently  the  Indian 
whooped.  The  people  will  be  here  to  witness  magic  gains  in  all  engaging  the 
human  brain  and  heart.  Gratitude  should  move  to  extend  the  hand  to  the  less 
fortunate  on  our  northern  and  western  borders  by  loss  of  crops.  The  year  1890  adds 
a  bright  page  to  our  history,  with  the  melodies  of  the  harvest  song.  We  are  proud 


320  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   TEARS. 

of  a  commonwealth,  endowed  by  nature,  and  of  gentlemen  conspicuous  for  skill 
with  the  animal  races,  as  the  officers  of  a  noble  fair  in  entertaining  the  hundreds  of 
thousands  with  the  best  attractions  of  a  gala  day. 

'"I  saw  no  intoxicated  man  on  these  grounds,'  said  a  visitor  last  year.  May 
there  be  none  this,  and  owners  of  bloods  will  have  new  courage  for  generous  rivalry. 
The  young  man  will  learn  of  honor  and  independence  in  the  vocation  of  statesmen 
in  life's  evening,  and  a  product  of  rural  life  here  will  be  man,  the  consummate 
flower  that  looks  upward  to  his  Maker." 

ARBORICULTURE. 

One  of  my  early  ventures,  after  coming  to  prairie-land,  was 
sending  word  to  my  friend  of  the  Bacon  family,  New  Haven,  Conn., 
for  elm-seeds.  Now  the  trees  abound  in  the  streets  of  this  college 
town,  reminding  of  the  classic  shades  of  the  city  whence  came  these 
children  of  strength  and  grace.  At  first,  indeed,  for  rapid  growth 
and  for  use  as  timber,  nurseries  and  waysides  were  planted  with 
the  locust,  but  the  great  army  of  locust  beetles,  pretty  in  black  and 
yellow  livery,  moving  westward  at,  I  believe,  about  thirty  miles  a 
year,  struck  us  about  1866,  ruining  the  trees  by  their  grub-boring. 
The  beautiful  silver  maples  are  favorites  for  speedy  growth  and 
cleanliness,  but  are  fragile  in  prairie  storms.  For  rich  verdure  we 
admire  and  transplant  or  sow  our  native  box-elder.  The  ever 
greens  here  and  there  do  well,  but  for  the  most  part  have  a  hard 
and  short  life,  exposed  to  drying  winds.  Long  be  the  life  of  our 
"  Beecher  Maple  ",  planted  by  the  hand  of  the  orator  himself,  and 
our  "Lincoln"  and  "Garfield"  elms,  planted  on  the  respective 
days  of  the  death  of  each. 

On  a  late  visit  to  my  son-in-law,  Prof.  E.  D.  Jones,  at  Normal, 
111.,  I  was  freshly  reminded  of  a  tree-culturist  whose  name  should 
not  be  forgotten.  In  the  literary  city  of  Bloomington,  of  which 
Normal  is  a  suburb,  there  lived  the  late  Jesse  W.  Fell,  an  arbori 
culturist  and  savant  of  eminence  thirty  years  agone.  Millions  of 
birds  skip  on  the  fruit  and  ornamental  boughs  which  adorn  this 
country,  and  for  him  I  seem  to  hear  the  plaintive  refrain  to  his 
memory  on  the  opening  of  the  buds,  to  lend  variety  to  luxuriant 
evergreen  sentinels  waving  in  grace  on  the  prairie  expanse. 

I  know  of  nothing  to  so  effectually  drive  away  discontent  and 
the  demon  of  unrest,  as  the  tree-embowered  rural  home.  Let,  then, 
Nebraska  and  Iowa  plant  and  cherish  trees  in  generous  rivalry. 
Gentle  rains  shall  fall  in  reward  from  heaven  before  as  brass. 
The  brute  shall  articulate  gratitude  to  his  master  for  shelter  and 


REMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY   TEARS.  321 

shade;  and  our  children,  for  the  trees  we  left  in  arbor,  orchard 
and  field,  will  find  incentives  to  cherish  the  paternal  legacy,  speak 
ing  as  by  the  JMian  harp  long  after  they  who  planted  sleep  in 
sepulture. 

FENCES. 

Fences  may  be  regarded  from  both  an  esthetical  and  a  financial 
standpoint.  Next  to  the  soil  in  cost  is  its  enclosure.  In  a  Vir 
ginia  worm  fence  there  was  no  beauty,  only  the  toleration  of  a 
necessity.  The  very  thought  of  great  trees  to  be  felled  and  split 
for  rails,  brings  perspiration,  and  the  memory  of  their  laying  up 
and  replacing  renews  the  back-ache.  Now,  stately  oaks  would  not 
be  accepted  as  a  gift  for  fencing,  when  wire  can  be  had,  strong, 
barbed  to  intimidate,  and  less  costly  than  wood,  protecting,  not 
wasting  the  soil,  and  set  with  legal  exactions  that  avoid  law-suits, 
without  appeal  to  the  Arkansas  standard — "mule-high,  bull-strong 
and  hog-tight " —  conditions  repellant  and  impossible  on  the  prai 
ries  where  the  barbing  of  wire  has  added  tens  of  millions  to  the 
value  of  our  acres. 

Town  fencing  was  another  question,  and  on  the  fenceless  policy 
I  doted  —  while  in  Washington  asking  for  the  removal  of  the  high 
barricade  of  iron  around  the  capitol  and  public  grounds.  I  heard 
of  the  trees,  defenseless,  planted  by  the  hand  of  Washington,  turf 
spoiled,  and  flowers  plucked ;  but  the  fences  are  now  gone  !  Confi 
dence  in  visitors  has  not  been  betrayed  by  vandalism.  Public 
spirit  and  taste  have  established  the  green-sward  in  its  beauty  and 
secured  protection.  Fashion  will  not  again  mar  with  urban  or 
rural  barriers,  a  mockery  of  the  trusting  hospitality  of  neighbors. 

In  our  own  beautiful  city,  once  a  bare  prairie,  now  a  grove,  the 
bristling  war-like  pikes  of  fences  are  fast  giving  way,  as  elsewhere, 
to  open  lawns,  defended  by  their  unarmed  beauty.  Time  was 
when  even  affluent  owners  insisted  on  their  cows  and  horses  hav 
ing  nightly  freedom  of  the  streets,  after  being  driven  in  at  evening 
from  the  prairie  —  defiling  the  walks,  and  endangering  border 
plants  accessible  to  the  long  necks  of  horses.  There  has  been 
many  a  hard  and  long  contest  in  western  towns  against  this  nui 
sance,  and  in  places  it  is  still  being  waged.  But  civilization  will 
yet  be  civilized,  everywhere. 


322  EEMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

A    PROTECTIVE    TARIFF    POLICY. 

As  things  are,  farmers  must  have  fences,  and  they  and  others 
must  have  a  tariff  fence  also.  It  was  before  college  days  that  I 
found  myself  an  American  Protectionist.  I  could  quote  the  com 
mon-sense  words  of  General  Jackson,  who  showed  that  the  farmer 
wanted  a  near  market,  to  be  attained  by  the  multiplication  of  fac 
tories  where  were  cheap  raw  material,  food  for  the  operative,  and 
motive  power  in  coal  mines,  and  water  power  ready  to  turn  the 
wheels.  Our  government  should  defend  enterprise,  he  believed, 
against  the  cheap  labor  of  the  old  world,  deluding  us  with  the 
philosophy  of  raising  the  raw  products  while  the  cities,  carriers 
and  foreigners  used  the  profits  of  fabrication. 

Henry  Clay,  the  most  popular  American  statesman,  not  only 
echoed  Jackson  that  "it  was  time  to  be  a  little  more  American", 
but  was  the  eloquent  defender  of  a  tariff  system  which  no  pres 
ident  arraigned,  down  to  Cleveland.  In  Vermont  we  were  wool 
growers,  and  certainly  partial  to  the  rate  of  duty  which  brought 
gain  to  the  flock  master,  the  building  of  factories  and  the  lessen 
ing  of  the  price  of  goods,  besides  securing  our  independence  of 
other  nations. 

Under  even  a  high  war  tariff,  no  nation  has  so  easily  removed 
a  colossal  war  debt  and  in  a  given  period  so  enhanced  its  wealth 
as  ours,  winning  the  admiration  of  the  statesmen  of  the  world, 
the  exceptional  opinion  of  a  Gladstone  standing  for  a  country  too 
limited  in  area  to  furnish  soil  for  the  raw  products,  and  food  for 
the  laborers. 

A  sharp,  clear  issue  is  near;  duties  levied  for  revenue  only, 
or  to  give  such  protection  that  capital  will  unlock  our  native 
resources,  enhancing  the  value  of  lands  and  securing  better  reward 
for  labor.  Our  natural  rivals  would  keep  us  in  vassalage  to  the 
forge  and  the  loom  abroad,  while  burdening  the  producer  with 
heavy  freight  charges,  while  the  fabricator  reaps  large  net  profits. 
Mere  book  and  college  theories  will  not  long  mystify  the  masses, 
while  in  the  study  of  personal  interest  and  the  road  to  the  highest 
social  independence  and  national  wealth. 

It  is  the  world's  common  law  that  the  land  owner  may  protect 
his  fields  against  the  trespasser,  and  it  is  not  less  plain  that  a  gov 
ernment  may  establish  conditions  on  which  rival  nations  may  enter 
our  markets.  Extreme  exactions  will  invite  reform,  but  not  the 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS.  323 

waiving  of  a  policy.  Advantages  must  be  equalized,  and  the  avoid 
ance  of  all  which  savors  of  favoritism.  To  invite  capital  there 
must  be  stable  legislation.  I  am  asked,  "Did  you  see  the  catalogue 
of  the  millionaires,  by  Mr.  T.  G.  Shearman  ? "  I  did,  and  the 
names  allied  to  manufacturing  as  the  source  of  wealth  could  not  be 
found,  to  brand  manufacturers  as  the  great  robbers.  Invention,  oil 
lands,  coal  and  railway  combination,  gave  an  answer  to  the  ques 
tion,  "  How  came  these  colossal  fortunes  ?  "  It  is  not  denied  that 
high  prices  in  war  times  added  to  the  fortunes  of  millions,  but  the 
benefited  class  embraces  farmers,  bankers,  railway  builders  and 
groups  of  citizens  moving  on  with  enterprise  and  hope.  Monopoly 
is  a  canting  terror  used  without  reason. 

Grave  matters  of  public  concern  demand  a  fixed  conclusion,  not 
only  by  the  reasoner,  but  a  formulation  to  guide  to  a  safe  and  prac 
tical  legislative  policy.  It  is  a  discredit,  perhaps,  to  human  nature 
that  we  fail  to  rise  above  the  caprice  of  the  hour,  and  a  low  grade 
of  selfishness,  to  the  broad  plane  of  generous  comity  and  enlight 
ened  statesmanship.  Outside  of  political  bias,  personal  interest,  or 
pride  of  opinion,  I  have  reached  this  conclusion,  that  a  national 
policy  should  be  as  devoid  of  party  strifes,  as  is  the  question  of 
birthplace  in  the  determination  of  true  patriotism. 

Reading,  reflection  and  business  experience,  have  all  conspired 
to  exalt  the  Hamilton s,  the  Jackson s,  the  Clays,  the  Greeleys, 
Henry  Careys  andBlaines,  as  financial  leaders,  if  not  demi-gods,  to 
be  studied  and  followed  with  the  pride  and  ardor  which  pertains  to 
American  loyalty.  What !  do  you  give  no  credit  for  honesty  and 
fidelity  to  conviction  to  those  who  advocate  free  trade  ?  I  assume 
that  the  New  York  press  for  the  most  part  writes  and  prints  for 
pay,  and  in  the  interest  of  a  commercial  city,  which  seeks  to  be  the 
thoroughfare  and  port  of  commerce  for  a  hundred  millions  of  peo 
ple.  And  I  have  no  agreement,  if  conceding  honesty,  with  the 
paid  teachers  of  political  science,  who  argue  directly  against  the 
interests  of  wage-workers,  and  the  farming  classes.  My  contempt 
is  beyond  expression  for  the  pretenders,  with  their  money  gains  in 
bank  or  bonds,  that  declaim  against  American  protection  as  a 
denial  to  buy  where  they  can  purchase  the  cheapest  and  sell  their 
gold  at  the  dearest  rates.  What  are  they  but  creatures  who  have 
turned  their  backs  to  the  masses,  for  personal  inordinate  gain? 
The  poor  may  have  an  excuse  for  a  blind  experiment,  and  a  depres 
sion  of  prices  to  sate  his  hunger  or  clothe  his  body,  but  this  does 


324  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   TEARS. 

not  apply  to  those  inheriting  money  or  living  upon  fixed  salaries. 
In  a  call  for  a  verdict  by  the  people  on  this  question,  the  privileged 
can  have  no  place  in  the  jury-box  and  their  specious  pleas  will 
be  met  with  a  becoming  derision,  as  the  mockery  of  patriotism. 

Ah !  but  what  will  you  do  with  the  great  preachers  of  universal 
brotherhood,  who  are  for  free  trade  as  the  normal  condition  and  for 
the  best  welfare  of  nations  ?  They  are  but  theorists.  It  was  my 
fortune  and  duty  to  tell  the  lamented  Beecher,  a  great  heart  has 
muddled  the  financial  brain  that  has  a  clear  perception  of  parental 
duty,  toward  a  child  or  family,  involving  more  in  providing  for 
his  own  than  for  another  household  and  nation.  Fellow-country 
men,  banded  for  protection  and  fortified  against  assault,  have  the 
first  claim,  else  patriotism  is  a  delusion,  and  natural  affection  a  myth. 

We  might  well  listen  to  the  opinion  of  a  Bismark,  who  sees  in 
our  protective  policy  the  solution  of  the  problems  with  which  the 
wastes  of  war  and  debt  confronted  us,  and  the  way  by  which 
we  attained,  in  credit,  wealth  and  power,  the  first  place  among 
nations.  It  is  left  for  the  politician  to  study  the  question  of 
cheap  foreign  goods,  linked  with  idleness  at  home,  contrasted  with 
an  era  of  activity,  expansion  and  independence,  such  as  no  other 
nation  has  achieved.  The  practical  question  will  appear,  to  a  rural 
people,  shall  the  ore  in  the  mountains,  and  coal,  and  all  the  powers 
and  incidents  to  invention,  be  developed  at  home,  under  economic 
laws,  or  shall  we  be  a  dependent  nation,  dealing  at  arms-length 
with  powerful  rivals  ? 

I  must  stand  by  my  speech  in  Congress,  without  variableness 
or  shadow  of  turning.  I  showed  that,  against  all  the  rules  of 
domestic  and  political  economy,  the  raw  material,  like  the  hide  of 
a  beef,  which  left  the  prairies,  passing  through  from  six  to  ten 
handlings  and  commissions,  would  be  proof  of  vassalage.  The 
alternative  was  the  fabricator,  with  his  family,  to  move  under 
fairer  skies  and  where  there  was  cheaper  fuel  and  food,  obtainable 
without  the  intervention  of  middleman. 

The  glove  factory  at  G-rinnell,  the  shoe-shops  springing  up  in 
the  West,  the  various  factories,  are  the  arguments  for  that  policy 
which  brings  wealth  to  the  nation,  and  must  become  the  standing 
argument  for  the  thoughtful  farmer,  who  takes  pride  in  the  state 
of  his  adoption,  and  desires  that  standard  of  wealth  and  refinement 
which  it  has  never  been  the  fortune  of  a  simple  agricultural  com 
munity  or  nation  to  attain. 


IOWA  COLLEGE  BUILDINGS. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

Grinnell  University  and  Iowa  College — Their  building — Progress 
— Fire — Tornado  Benefactors  —  Tribute  to  their  Memory — 
Other  Benefactors —  Use  of  Trust  Funds. 

FROM  a  mass  of  material  is  gleaned  what  is  most  worthy 
of  presentation,  related  to  Grinnell  University  and  Iowa  College. 
The  facts  may  be  of  service  to  the  future  historian  of  the  college. 
A  part  is  from  the  pen  of  President  Carter,  of  Williams  College, 
Dr.  Magoun,  and  others,  tributes  to  the  early  friends  of  education. 
After  the  losses  by  fire  and  the  tornado,  a  visit  to  personal  and 
business  friends  distant  secured  large  sums  from  those  outside  the 
church,  toward  the  erection  of  buildings ;  and  for  their  liberality 
there  is,  if  late,  a  becoming  tribute. 

There  will  be  found  neither  a  defense  of  my  acts  as  trustee 
for  thirty  odd  years  nor  a  criticism  of  administration  —  rather  a 
welding  of  the  links  in  a  providential  chain,  in  keeping  with  an 
optimistic  spirit  that  studied  and  looked  for  a  rainbow,  rather 
than  the  lightning's  flash.  If  the  task  is  a  delicate  one,  the  reader 
will  ask  no  apology  from  the  only  living  person  who  participated 
in  all  the  events.  I  saw  the  string  of  oxen  turning  over  the  vir 
gin  sod,  for  a  cornfield;  later  the  imbedding  of  granite  corner 
stones  for  the  first  prairie  edifice,  the  burning  of  which  was  the 
promise  of  one  more  comely  j  then,  in  the  path  of  destruction  by 
the  tornado  of  1882,  there  has  risen  from  ashes  the  noble  edifices, 
due  to  the  generosity  of  friends  and  to  the  tasteful  ministries  of 
art. 

The  pictures  opposite  represent  only  the  buildings  which 
immediately  rose  after  the  tornado,  and  are  the  delight  of  our  citi 
zens  and  visiting  friends ;  their  erection  and  use,  with  a  mention 
of  the  benefactors  by  whose  liberality  they  were  reared,  will  be 
more  than  a  study  of  local  import  and  interest. 

Our  artists  have  not  well  represented  the  beautiful,  natural 
campus,  nor  have  they  more  than  hinted  the  landscape  features, 


326  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

generously  planned  by  Donald  G.  Mitchell,  and  supplemented  by 
the  grading  and  planning  due  to  the  elegant  taste  of  Professor  H. 
W.  Parker.  It  is  evident  that  so  comely  a  group  of  edifices  are 
the  products  of  artists  of  the  highest  repute,  with  a  view  to  util 
ity  as  chapel,  class-rooms,  laboratories,  library  halls,  and  museum- 
galleries.  More  than  $100,000  are  placed  in  these  walls,  voiceless 
as  to  the  benefactors  whose  names  will  here  find  a  grateful  mention, 
in  the  hope  that  students  in  temporary  sojourn  not  less  than  grad 
uates  will  appreciate  those  rare  facilities  in  acquiring  an  education 
which  were  denied  their  fathers.  There  should  be  a  mention  of 
the  devotion  to  sound  learning  of  those  who  planned  Iowa's  first 
college  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi.  The  forecast  and  wisdom 
in  its  removal,  with  a  hospitable  generous  welcome,  to  the  prairies, 
will  appear  more  than  a  mere  incident,  since  all  are  interwoven 
with  the  most  impressive  evidences  of  Divine  care  in  a  history  of 
seeming  reverses,  now  read  as  blessings  in  the  open  book  of  God's 
providences. 

I  cheerfully  comply  with  the  request  to  write  out  some  facts 
pertinent  to  the  founding  of  Grinnell  University  and  Iowa  College. 
It  is  a  delicate  service,  for  I  shall  not  attempt  concealment  of  an 
early  ambition  to  be  allied  with  a  good  academy  or  university  at 
my  western  home,  when  not  anticipating  so  long  and  honorable  an 
association  with  persons  who  were  and  are  truly  the  devoted  pio 
neers  of  the  age. 

IOWA    COLLEGE. 

In  March,  1844,  while  Iowa  was  yet  a  territory,  our  college  was 
planned  at  Denmark  by  the  well-known  Iowa  Band,  by  the  prompt 
ings  of  Rev.  Asa  Turner,  Eev.  Julius  A.  Eeed  and  Seth  Eichards, 
Esq.,  since  the  generous  founder  of  a  professorship  in  Iowa  College, 
and  James  Houghton,  Esq.  A  committee  was  appointed  on  the 
location  of  the  college,  and  in  1846  Davenport  was  selected  as  the 
site.  Eev.  Asa  Turner  was  appointed  in  1844  to  go  East  as  an 
agent  to  secure  funds,  and  returned  with  little  money  but  with  a 
profusion  of  vague  promises.  A  home  subscription  was  started 
with  a  liberal  response,  and  Eev.  J.  J.  Hill,  of  the  Iowa  Band,  put 
the  first  dollar  in  the  treasury  before  the  birth  of  his  sons,  three  of 
whom  have  graduated  at  Iowa  College.  Of  these  sons,  Dr.  Ger- 
shom  Hill,  now  a  trustee,  and  Eev.  J.  L.  Hill,  pastor  at  Medford, 


EEMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   TEARS.  327 

Mass.,  joined  in  giving  rhetorical  prizes  ;  and  the  other,  George  H. 
Hill,  I  found  emulating  his  father  by  making  the  first  donation  to 
the  new  college  at  Pomona,  Cal.  The  portrait  of  Eev.  J.  J.  Hill, 
whose  father  was  an  educator  and  member  of  Congress  from 
Maine,  greets  you  in  welcome  as  you  enter  the  college  library  in 
Goodnow  Hall.  It  has  an  inspiration  in  a  seeming  smile  of  satis 
faction  on  the  growth  of  the  institution,  which  found  in  him  an 
early  friend,  and  gains  in  rich  and  later  benefactions  by  his 
children. 

The  particular  gifts  and  early  devotion  of  the  Iowa  Band  with 
other  friends,  I  need  not  detail,  but  as  a  trustee  of  the  college  for 
thirty  years,  I  am  a  witness  of  their  gifts  to  its  treasury  and  their 
abounding  service.  Nor  are  the  reasons  for  a  removal  from  Daven 
port  to  Grinnell  pertinent  to  my  narration.  I  cannot  forbear  to 
make  mention  of  professors  Erastus  Eipley,  Daniel  Lane  and  H. 
L.  Bullen,  with  others,  gone  to  their  reward,  who  labored  hard  and 
lived  on  meagre  salaries,  laying  a  foundation  for  a  happy  blending 
of  interests  in  a  more  central  location  and  in  the  midst  of  congenial 
society.  The  gift  of  town  property  to  education  at  Grinnell 
attracted  a  class  of  settlers  of  intelligence,  having  families  in  wait 
ing  for  the  formation  of  college  classes,  and  able  to  furnish  student 
homes  in  want  of  dormitories  and  commons. 

The  property  held  by  the  Literary  Fund  for  Grinnell  Univers 
ity  was  no  chance-incident  affair.  It  came  by  profits  on  land  sold 
outside  the  town,  and  from  donated  lots  rising  in  value,  backed  by 
the  gift  of  a  campus  of  twenty  acres,  and  local  subscription  of 
about  $5,000,  gathered  in  the  gloomiest  period  of  our  financial  his 
tory.  A  comely  brick  building,  spacious  for  that  day,  was  not 
completed  before  the  later  union  for  want  of  time ;  not  because  of 
lack  of  courage,  or  money.  It  represented  sacrifice  in  drawing  the 
granite  for  the  foundations  from  a  distance,  and  night  service  by 
humble  citizens,  and  ardent  women  holding  candles  for  light  in 
lathing  the  college.  Their  names  may  be  forgotten,  but  their  zeal 
was  like  a  contagion ;  and  the  labor  and  gifts  were  the  promise  of 
a  college,  whether  united  with  Iowa  College  or  alone  in  sacrifice. 

That  cordial  service  rendered  by  Rev.  S.  L.  Herrick  and  Rev. 
Julius  A.  Reed,  and  others,  should  have  recognition,  if  without  col 
lege  record.  Then,  Prof.  L.  F.  Parker  and  wife  were  laborious, 
cheerful  and  efficient  in  laying  foundations,  and  on  these  they  are 
still  building  with  large  material  gifts  and  welcome  professional 


328  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

services.  .  Well  named  the  man  of  all  work  and  professor,  he  gave 
the  Latin  address  on  behalf  of  the  faculty  as  Carter  Professor  of 
Languages,  commencing  —  "Plena  momenti  est  vita",  at  the  inau 
guration  of  the  first  president,  Dr.  George  F.  Magoun. 

THE    GKINNELL    UNIVERSITY. 

This  is  mentioned  as  the  "so  called"  in  later  days.  Was  it 
not  a  reality?  It  had  enlisted  professors  of  rank,  had  a  larger 
number  of  students  than  Iowa  College,  more  property,  and  made 
an  unreserved  surrender  of  its  charter,  good  will  and  building  prop 
erty,  estimated  on  a  low  cash  basis  at  $25,000.  This  was  a  larger 
sum  in  reality,  not  prospectively,  than  that  of  the  college  fund  in 
Davenport,  rising  by  actual  sales  and  value  of  lands  to  $75,000. 
This  gift  must  ever  be  in  association  not  with  one,  but  with  a  peo 
ple  joined  in  purpose  while  pioneers,  many  of  them  gone  to  their 
reward,  yet  who  have  left  children  with  a  friendship  and  unfalter 
ing  trust  in  the  college  which  reflects  the  virtues  of  their  fathers. 

The  union  of  Grinnell  University  and  Iowa  College  was  more 
than  a  sentiment.  One  of  the  parties,  not  a  mythical  character, 
the  university  president,  gave  the  following  address  at  the  inaugu 
ration  and  nuptial  ceremonies : 

Mr.  President: 

It  is  a  pleasant  duty  with  which  I  am  charged  on  this  occasion,  in  formally 
recognizing  a  union  now  effected,  which  virtually  secures  the  coalescence  of  Grin 
nell  University  in  Iowa  College. 

Coming  to  you  in  our  youth,  wearing  the  simple  blushes  of  a  maiden  on  the 
occasion  of  marriage  proposals,  we  make  no  apologies  for  the  natural  and  coy 
advances  of  a  yearning  heart,  nor  for  the  seeming  indulgence  of  leap-year  privi 
leges  ;  for,  so  hlissful  is  the  union,  that  had  you  known  more  of  us  we  know  that 
earlier  you  would  have  taken  us  "  for  better  or  worse  ". 

Permit  us,  then  (with  a  parenthesis,  that  we  may  be  reassured  of  the  consider 
ation  due  to  so  unassuming  a  bride),  to  remind  you  that  our  contribution  to  thia 
union  was  an  untarnished  reputation,  two  professors,  a  half  hundred  of  students, 
the  good-will  of  a  community,  and  a  considerable  dowry  of  the  value  in  college 
building,  land  and  cash,  of  twenty-five  thousand  dollars. 

Let  these  currents  of  influence  —  widening  and  deepening  as  they  flow,  with 
the  products  of  common  toil  consecrated  to  sound  learning — be  one.  The  stream 
let  that  was  by  the  "  Father  of  Waters  ",  and  shares  the  loves  of  the  Alumni,  wel 
comes,  we  know,  this  prairie  rill  that  mingles  with  the  glee  of  our  youth  to-day  its 
murmurs  in  salutation  to  you,  our  pilot  and  president,  in  this  conflux.  Hundreds 
of  churches,  the  guardians  of  our  common  schools  and  sagacious  statesmen,  indulge 
the  hope  that  by  this  fountain  of  learning,  the  first  made  free  to  the  poor  and 
maimed  of  our  gallant  soldiery,  there  may  grow  the  trees  of  knowledge  whose 
gilded  leaves,  graceful  boughs  and  golden  fruit  shall  be  at  once  an  attraction  and  a 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  329 

blessing  to  many  generations  dwelling  on  these  "unshorn  gardens".  All  is 
auspicious. 

Let  me,  then,  most  heartily,  in  behalf  of  the  founders  of  Grinnell  University, 
her  trustees,  the  beauty  and  virtue  of  her  daughters,  and  the  well-proven  chivalry 
of  her  sons,  surrender  to  your  keeping  her  all. 

The  youth  of  our  commonwealth  we  know  are  your  pride.  You  have  the  ripe 
culture  and  the  educational  experience  of  one  who  may  make  his  motto,  Aut  viam 
inveniam  autfaciam,  and  God  being  your  counsellor,  we  are  confident  of  wide  and 
glorious  results. 

The  college  has  continued  to  flourish  notwithstanding  the  deci 
mation  of  numbers  by  the  civil  war,  and  the  loss  of  its  buildings, 
first  by  fire,  again  by  tornado,  and  on  both  occasions,  the  destruc 
tion  of  library,  apparatus  and  fine  museums.  I  gave  an  address  in 
June,  1882,  amidst  the  crumbling  walls  of  the  first  college,  and  in 
sight  of  the  yet  smoking  ruins  of  the  second  and  third.  It  was  at 
the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  Alumni  Hall,  and  I  said  our  fallen 
trees  would  let  in  the  light,  the  trimming  of  the  clumps  was  thor 
ough,  if  not  artistic,  and  the  wastes  of  the  storm  would  awaken 
practical  sympathy,  causing  statelier  buildings  to  rise;  the  college 
would  be  better  known,  and  stronger  and  larger  in  every  desired 
proportion  on  account  of  seeming  calamity.  Prof.  H.  W.  Parker 
recited  a  beautiful  poem,  and  the  words  of  our  president  were  faith 
and  supreme  trust  in  Him  who  had  sent  but  a  temporary,  blighting 
hope,  for  the  clouds  of  adversity  were  now  rising. 

Our  first  president  resigned,  after  having  served  above  twenty 
years  with  ability  and  fidelity.  So  far  as  I  am  aware  his  opinions 
as  to  the  accepting  of  faculty  resignations  and  the  filling  of  vacan 
cies  in  the  board  of  instruction  were  recognized  and  adopted. 
And  I  am  reminded  here  that,  when  I  first  visited  the  West,  the 
now  venerable  ex-president  of  Iowa  College,  Geo.  F.  Magoun,  D.D., 
with  the  flush  of  youth  and  enthusiasm,  was  an  academy  prin 
cipal  at  Plattville,  and  later  was  in  Beloit  at  the  founding  of  the 
college,  to  which  institution  my  own  first  educational  gift  was 
made.  Beloit  College  was  then  but  a  dream.  At  the  corner-stone 
laying  of  its  first  building,  I  first  became  acquainted  with  Dr. 
Magoun ;  and  it  is  an  oft-repeated  remark  that  this  was  the  begin 
ning  of  forty-six  years  of  varied  public  and  eventful  service,  more 
or  less  in  co-operation.  He  has  long  been  honored,  not  only  as  our 
presiding  officer,  but  also  as  an  Andover  lecturer ;  a  writer  of  mas 
terly  ability  in  reviews  and  other  journals  ;  the  model  biographer 
of  our  model  pioneer  and  trustee,  Father  Turner ;  and  as  conspic- 


330  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

nous  in  ecclesiastical,  missionary,  reform,  and  even  political  con 
ventions,  not  omitting  his  representation  of  this  country  in  foreign 
church  assemblies,  and  conferences  on  international  law. 

There  seemed,  indeed,  to  be  a  fatality,  when  we  found  able 
instructors,  in  their  being  attracted  elsewhere,  examples  of  which 
we  have  in  Prof.  John  Avery,  the  distinguished  philologist,  now 
deceased ;  Prof.  Henry  Carmichael,  chemist,  afterward  of  Bowdoin 
College ;  and  Prof.  Arthur  S.  Hardy,  called  to  Dartmouth,  and  ris 
ing  to  eminence  not  alone  in  his  profession,  but  as  an  author  of 
celebrity.  Prof.  L.  F.  Parker  left  temporarily  for  the  State  Uni 
versity,  after  twenty  years  of  service,  and  returns  as  professor  of 
history.  Prof.  H.  W.  Parker,  now  of  New  York,  returned  after 
nine  years  in  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College.  He  has  left 
the  evidences  of  his  genius  and  energy  in  our  model  cabinet  as  a 
naturalist,  besides  adding,  in  supplement  to  his  volume  of  poetry, 
a  prose  work  attracting  the  warmest  praise  of  scholars,  entitled, 
"  The  Spirit  of  Beauty ".  Thus  has  the  college  suffered  by  with 
drawal  of  able  instructors,  and  more  recently  has  had  occasion  to 
accept  the  resignation  of  Prof.  Fisk  P.  Brewer  and  J.  M.  Crow,  of 
more  than  local  repute  as  linguists,  who  amidst  universal  commend 
ation  and  sorrow  have  closed  their  earthly  career. 

The  Catalogue  of  1890-91,  after  two  years  of  full  service  by 
the  new  president,  Geo.  A.  Gates,  shows  a  full  corps  of  instructors 
in  longer  and  briefer  periods  of  able  service,  in  harmonious  and 
enthusiastic  co-operation.  The  total  attendance  of  students  is 
nearly  six  hundred,  being  much  above  that  of  the  three  years  pre 
vious.  The  modern  idea  of  self-government  is  adopted  with  pleas 
ing  results.  The  games  and  sports  on  the  campus  give  promise  of 
health  and  muscular  development,  as  yet  in  no  way  detracting  from 
studious  habits,  and  from  the  deportment  becoming  gentlemen. 
The  buildings  are  mainly  warmed  by  steam  from  a  single  plant,  in 
avoidance  of  dust  and  exposure  to  fire,  and  with  a  lessening  of 
expense.  Electric  lights  gleam  on  the  campus,  and  symbolize  the 
progress  that  gives  the  college  a  more  flattering  prospect  of  a  thou 
sand  students,  at  an  early  date,  than  it  had  for  hundreds,  twenty 
years  ago. 

Our  sad  tornado  history  is  interwoven  with  the  names  of  many 
generous  friends  in  the  restoration  that  reared  five  stone  and  brick 
edifices,  where  by  the  recent  calamity  there  were  only  the  ruins  of 
a  night. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY  TEARS.  331 

BLAIR    HALL    AND    GOODNOW    HALL. 

The  Hon.  John  I.  Blair,  for  whom  Blair  Hall  was  named,  gave 
over  $16,000  toward  its  erection.  He  was  mentioned  in  befitting 
compliments  by  Governor  Merrill  on  its  dedication,  and  a  life-size 
oil  painting  of  himself  seems  to  smile  in  satisfaction  from  our 
library  walls.  It  was  here,  too,  that  he  offered  counsel  in  a  speech 
to  the  students,  of  even  greater  value,  if  heeded,  than  his  liberal 
money  benefactions. 

Blair  Hall  is  the  central  and  largest  of  the  college  structures, 
built  of  stone,  gothic  in  architecture.  Its  two  wings  arc  occupied 
by  the  chemical,  physical  and  biological  departments,  the  first- 
mentioned  occupying  the  three  stories  of  one  wing.  The  central 
part  contains  the  museum  hall,  thirty  by  sixty  feet,  and  fifty-two 
feet  high,  with  two  encircling  galleries  —  undoubtedly  the  finest 
and  completest  museum  in  design  and  contents  to  be  found  west  of 
New  York  or  Michigan.  It  includes  the  $1200  set  of  Ward's 
casts  given  by  George  H.  Corliss,  a  $7,000  collection  of  mounted 
mammals  and  birds  formerly  exhibited  in  Central  Park,  New  York, 
and  a  $500  series  of  invertebrates  presented  by  Morris  K.  Jesup, 
the  New  York  banker,  besides  countless  other  specimens  illustrat 
ing  all  the  kingdoms  and  classes  in  nature. 

GOODNOW    LIBRARY    HALL. 

This  edifice  is  a  most  artistic  and  beautiful  stone  structure.  It 
was  named  in  honor  of  Hon.  E.  A.  Goodnow,  of  Worcester,  Mass., 
who  gave  $10,500  toward  its  erection.  Its  library  alcoves  are 
ample.  Its  reading-room  and  offices  are  spacious,  while,  with  an 
enlarged  plan,  there  is  added  a  telescope  tower,  both  for  use  and 
architectural  harmony.  The  dedication  oration  was  by  the  friend 
of  the  donor,  Eev.  D.  0.  Mears,  D.  D.,  whose  subject  was,  "The 
Republic  of  Books  ".  An  historical  address  was  delivered  on  the 
occasion,  June  23,  1885,  by  the  writer,  as  follows : 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen : 

Goochiow  Hall  we  formally  dedicate  to-day.  Its  corner  stone  was  laid  in  the 
last  autumn  with  commemorative  service  of  song,  oration  and  prayer,  in  the  pres 
ence  of  a  large  and  happy  gathering  of  citizens,  students,  faculty,  trustees  and 
friends  of  Iowa  College. 

To-day,  awakening  our  admiration,  and  ready  for  the  dome,  is  an  edifice  ele- 


332  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 


gant  in  design  —  the  work  of  genius,  and  a  modern  classic  in  art,  a  product  of  the 
handiwork  of  skilled  artisans  who  have  moulded  with  chisel,  perfected  and  shaped 
with  hammer,  steam  appliance  and  heat,  the  hest  of  Iowa  and  Missouri  sand  and 
limestone ;  the  rare,  red-tinted  quartzite  of  the  Dakotas ;  slate  from  the  quarries  of 
New  Jersey ;  copper  from  the  mines  of  Lake  Superior ;  chaste  and  enduring  pine 
of  the  South,  deftly  framed  with  iron  girders,  a  combination  in  material  for 
strength,  beauty  and  utility. 

It  is  the  gem  on  our  ample  oval  campus,  crowned  with  Alumni,  Chicago  and 
Blair  Halls,  at  once  the  joyous  delight  and  mystery  to  the  sad  throngs  of  visitors 
who  witnessed  the  terrible  tornado  desolation  of  three  years  agone.  Not  unto  us 
shall  be  the  praise,  for  it  was  not  by  us  they  arose.  Many  thousands  came  by  the 
Chicago  &  Rock  Island  Railway,  and  not  less  than  fifty  thousand  dollars  beyond 
the  circle  of  our  Congregational  order,  with  a  spontaneity  that  discredits  the 
theories  of  total  race  depravity,  and  with  rare  munificence  that  shall  evermore 
express  a  regard  by  the  people  for  collegiate  education  and  for  Iowa  College,  eldest 
and  honored  of  our  state  institutions. 

In  the  inception  there  was  only  a  library  hall.  ,  The  plan  adopted  presents  an 
edifice  majestic  in  proportions,  combining  utility,  symmetry  and  strength.  A 
lower  hall  is  a  reading-room  with  an  annex  for  an  art  collection.  The  second  story, 
in  gallery  and  alcoves,  has  a  capacity  for  fifty  thousand  volumes,  connected  with 
an  office,  or  more  quiet  retreat  for  thought  and  consultation,  and  with  easy  access 
to  the  telescopic  tower,  which  is  so  solid  in  structure  as  never  to  be  moved  by  storm 
or  tempest ;  fully  equal  to  the  latest  demands  of  science,  it  will  lend  new  interest 
to  the  students  of  the  world's  starry  wonders.  The  architect  is  Mr.  Stephen  C. 
Earl,  of  Worcester,  Mass.,  whose  fame  is  as  wide  as  the  renown  of  the  guild. 

Our  honored  patron  was  to  have  been  a  guest  of  the  college  to-day,  but  he  is 
not  here  to  share  in  these  festivities,  and  I  can  only  voice  your  hearty  welcome ; 
that  of  grateful  children  of  the  new  West  to  an  elderly,  modest  Christian  gentle 
man;  that  he  may  yet  come  to  grace  a  banquet  in  Iowa  in  honor  of  a  name 
endeared  in  the  heart  of  the  Old  Commonwealth  and  linked  with  graceful,  munifi 
cent  charities  around  the  globe. 

Should  the  delicate  sensibility  of  the  orator  of  this  occasion,  Dr.  Mears,  omit 
his  prime  agency  in  turning  the  heart  of  our  patron  philanthropist  here,  I  should 
be  derelict  in  duty  and  in  historic  fidelity,  not  to  make  this  mention.  He  gave 
cheer  amidst  our  desolations  by  storm ;  was  a  helpful  friend  in  restoration  and  the 
Seer  with  a  more  delicate  touch  than  that  which  early  smote  the  rock  to  open  the 
fountain ;  he  touched  the  heart  that  gives  an  earnest  and  hopeful  augury  of  a 
perennial  flow  that  shall  enrich  our  treasury,  for  the  growth  and  efficiency  of 
departments  in  learning,  to  flourish  as  trees  of  the  garden  by  the  fountains  of 
waters. 

It  is  more  than  witicism  —  a  modern  opinion  —  that  in  certain  Boston  circles  it 
is  neither  respectable  nor  safe  to  die  without  leaving  a  legacy  for  Harvard  College. 
We  supplicate  that  spirit  in  hope  that  westward,  like  the  Star  of  Empire,  it  may 
"  take  its  way  ",  shedding  radiant  and  benign  gifts  from  full  coffers  and  affluent 
hearts  on  this  college,  a  child  of  devotion,  a  growth  by  sacrifice,  and  enjoying  an 
almost  miraculous  resurrection.  Hail!  and  forever  welcome  our  thousand  bene 
factors  and  your  children  to  the  halls  you  reared,  and  to  hearts  buoyant  in  hope 
to-day,  in  the  dedication  of  our  latest  material  treasure. 

Students  and  college  patrons  will  visit  and  revisit,  in  ever-increasing  numbers, 
our  campus,  to  receive  the  inspiration  of  a  classic  retreat,  lingering  in  the  sun  of 
the  morning  as  it  sheds  its  prismatic  gleam  on  the  volumes  which  reflect  the 
wisdom  and  thought  of  the  ages ;  ascending  the  tower,  a  telescope  which  invests 
With  new  interest  a  study  of  the  starry  world,  will  awaken  gratitude,  while  to  be 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  333 

read  in  a  rich  golden  sunset,  chiseled  in  marble  and  in  bold  relief  on  the  tower,  is 
the  name  to  abide  the  wastes  of  time,  and  for  us  and  our  children  the  synonym  of 
Christian  generosity  —  that  of  Hon.  Edward  A.  Goodnow. 

THE    MARY    GRINNELL    MEARS    COTTAGE. 

There  had  long  been  earnest  discussion  in  regard  to  rooms  for 
ladies,  where  supervision  and  the  best  accommodations  could  be 
had.  Only  a  few  thousand  dollars  for  this  object  were  in  the 
treasury,  when,  by  a  glad  and  second  surprise,  the  donor  of  Good 
now  Library  Hall  made  a  gift  of  $5,000  to  a  building  to  be  known 
as  the  Mary  Grinnell  Mears  Cottage.  On  acceptance  of  the  condi 
tions,  Rev.  J.  M.  Chamberlain  and  wife  gave  a  block  of  land  join 
ing  the  campus,  a  most  valuable  and  opportune  place  for  the  cot 
tage  ;  the  corner-stone  being  laid  with  appropriate  ceremonies  and 
addresses  by  Eev.  Mr.  Chamberlain,  Mrs.  Crow,  the  lady  principal, 
and  Mrs.  Mary  G-.  Mears.  The  building  is  tasteful  in  all  its 
appointments,  and  fully  occupied. 

EDWARD    A.    GOODNOW 

is  a  venerable  citizen  of  Worcester,  Mass.,  a  late  but  most  serv 
iceable  friend  by  gifts  which  have  secured  the  building  of  Library 
Hall  and  the  Mary  Grinnell  Mears  Cottage.  Our  tornado  calamity 
first  engaged  his  sympathy,  and  later  an  "  alumna  "  of  the  college 
won  his  attention  to  our  wants,  which  led  to  the  securing  of  the 
"Ladies'  Cottage". 

The  following  was  the  tribute  given  by  the  lady  for  whom  the 
cottage  was  named,  at  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  the  cottage, 
June,  1888 : 

"  The  genesis  of  this  Ladies'  Cottage  was  in  the  warm  pulsations  of  the  '  Heart 
of  the  Old  Bay  State  Commonwealth ',  in  the  person  of ,  the  eminent  financier  and 
philanthropist  —  Hon.  E.  A.  Goodnow,  of  Worcester,  Mass.  I  bring  to  you  to-day, 
a  message  of  interest  and  affection  from  him  —  from  one  who  has  never  trod  the 
soil  of  our  Iowa — 'Beautiful  La*hd',  but  who  has  given  more  than  fifteen  thou 
sand  dollars  to  enrich  our  college. 

"  Could  you  go  with  me  to  the  private  office  of  this  banker,  you  would  find  a 
notable  art  gallery.  The  pictures  were  not  wrought  by  the  skillful  hand  of  a  Van 
Dyck  or  a  Titian ;  they  were  not  produced  by  brush  and  canvas  at  an  expense  of 
thousands  of  dollars,  but  are  simple  photographs,  representing  in  stone  and  brick 
the  results  of  a  continual  flow  of  blessings  falling  from  his  hand  upon  the  daugh 
ters  of  benighted  Africa,  the  red  men  of  the  forest,  '  our  brother  in  black ',  the 
classic  haunts  of  Holyoke  and  Wellesley,  and  upon  the  schools  of  the  Evangelist 


334  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS. 

Moody.  But  these  pictures  cannot  represent  a  tithe  of  the  Christian  benevolence 
which  has  flowed  from  this  quiet  office.  A  tribute  to  the  martyr  John  Brown 
blessed  Washburn  College,  in  Kansas;  the  library  hall  in  Princeton  proclaims 
with  silent  eloquence  his  loyalty  to  his  early  home ;  nor  in  this  presence  can  we 
forget  yonder  Goodnow  Library  Hall,  whose  jasper  walls  are  as  fair  and  firm  as 
ever  pleased  the  eye  of  artisan,  architect  or  artist. 

"  Besides  all  these,  Mr.  Goodnow  speaks  to  the  world  through  scores  of  trained 
minds  in  our  own  and  other  colleges,  who  but  for  his  kindly  aid  might  have  been 
denied  the  possibility  of  the  highest  development.  Tnus  while  keeping  his  own 
heart  warm,  he  is  in  the  line  of  the  highest  philosophy,  transmuting  the  perishable 
treasures  of  earth  into  eternal  gold,  beyond  the  reach  of  Time's  effacing  fingers. 

"  '  As  for  his  bounty  there  was  no  winter  in't.'  " 
JACOB    HAISH, 

of  De  Kalb,  111.,  placed  a  sum  of  money  in  my  hands  to  be  used  at 
personal  discretion,  to  which,  after  years  of  accumulation,  was 
added  smaller  sums  by  Col.  S.  F.  Cooper,  J.  H.  Merrill  and  others, 
resulting  in  the  securing  of  an  Alvan  Clark  telescope,  already  men 
tioned.  At  the  dedication,  this  most  thoughtful  benefactor  was 
extolled  in  verse  by  Prof.  H.  W.  Parker,  also  in  an  eloquent  pane 
gyric  and  dedicatory  oration  by  Rev.  Wni.  R.  Scarritt,  with  com 
mendation  by  the  Professor  of  Astronomy,  S.  J.  Buck. 

It  is  not  in  idle  boast,  but  with  grateful  emotion  in  regard  to 
our  benefactor,  that  I  mention  this  telescope  as  the  first  in  size 
and  modern  appointments  in  Iowa.  It  makes  the  sublime  study  of 
astronomy,  with  all  cognate  topics,  practical  for  the  college  student 
and  specialist,  making  the  college  equal  to  the  best,  in  this  respect. 

In  the  gifts  of  Mr.  Goodnow,  Mr.  Haish  and  similar  benefactors 
will  be  found  no  application  of  the  reproach  by  Dean  Swift  that 
"  reputations  for  benevolence  could  be  gained  by  the  laying  out  of 
five  pounds  a  year".  Our  friends  were  mainly  silent  givers,  nor 
could  they  be  classed  with  ambitious  townsmen,  or  sectarians,  giv 
ing  as  a  money  investment  or  ministering  to  state  pride. 

AARON    BENEDICT    AND    CHARLES    BENEDICT. 

These  were  among  our  earliest  and  noblest  benefactors.  The 
following  facts  are  furnished  by  Ex-President  G.  F.  Magoun,  D.  D. : 

"  The  Benedict  Professorship  of  Latin  in  Iowa  College  was 
founded  and  endowed  by  Deacon  Aaron  Benedict,  of  the  First  Con 
gregational  Church,  Waterbury,  Conn.,  and  Deacon  Charles  Bene- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  FOETY   TEARS.  335 

diet,  his  son,  of  the  Second  Church.  Nearly  twenty-five  years  ago 
Eev.  Theron  Baldwin,  D.  D.,  of  the  old  '  Western  College  Society ', 
opened  the  way  for  my  visiting  them  under  the  sanction  of  that 
society.  On  Monday  morning,  after  preaching  in  both  churches 
upon  the  Sabbath,  I  found  them  at  the  counting-room  of  the  Ben 
edict  &  Burnham  Clock  Factory,  the  father  having  resigned  the 
oversight  of  the  great  industries  he  had  built  up  to  the  son,  but 
still  retaining  an  active  interest  in  them.  After  describing  the 
condition,  needs  and  opportunities  of  the  college,  Deacon  Aaron 
said  with  a  smile,  '  I  guess  you  had  better  give  him,  Charles,  one 
thousand  dollars  for  his  preaching  yesterday/  My  proposition  to 
them  was  to  complete  the  endowment  of  the  chair  of  ancient  lan 
guages,  these  including  Greek  and  Latin,  the  endowment  of  which 
by  Deacon  P.  W.  Carter,  of  the  same  town,  had  been  arrested  by 
his  death.  On  subsequent  visits  to  Waterbury,  other  gifts  were 
added  on  other  Monday  mornings  by  these  gentlemen,  the  father 
assuring  me  once  that  I  should  always  earn  at  least  one  thousand 
dollars  for  the  college  by  preaching  in  the  two  churches  of  Water- 
bury.  Ere  long  I  ventured  to  propose  the  division  of  the  lan 
guage  chair,  as  originally  contemplated  by  Deacon  Carter,  who 
wished  his  money  in  that  case  to  go  to  the  Greek  endowment,  and 
the  creation  of  a  Benedict  endowment  of  Latin.  The  elder  Bene 
dict  always  deferred  to  the  judgment  of  his  admirable  son,  and, 
this  plan  being  accepted,  I  received  at  one  time  as  much  as  four 
thousand  dollars  in  one  sum  to  complete  ten  thousand  dollars  for 
the  new  chair.  The  evening  before  my  marriage  to  the  lady  prin 
cipal  of  the  Waterbury  Seminary  for  young  ladies  —  since  '  St. 
Margaret's'  —  Hon.  Charles  Benedict  gave  me  for  his  father  and 
himself,  ten  thousand  dollars  to  complete  the  endowment  of  twenty 
thousand  dollars. 

"  These  were  men  of  mark,  capable  of  planning  and  doing  large 
things.  Hon.  Charles  Benedict,  a  man  of  noble  presence  and  spirit, 
became  in  his  last  years  president  of  the  Western  College  Society. 
Other  colleges  besides  ours  shared  in  his  hearty  and  practical  benef 
icence.  A  man  of  very  few  words,  but  of  great  administrative 
ability,  and  steady  energy,  he  gave  as  careful  scrutiny  to  matters 
of  benevolence  and  Christian  usefulness  as  to  those  of  business, 
and  his  discernment  and  sagacity  were  counted  by  all  who  knew 
him  of  very  superior  value.  It  was  the  mechanical  skill  and 
inventiveness  of  his  father  which  created  so  much  of  the  manu- 


336  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

f acturing  enterprises  of  the  beautiful  city  which,  owes  so  much  to 
them." 

SAMUEL    WILLISTON. 

This  gentleman,  a  resident  of  Easthampton,  Mass.,  was  the 
largest  giver  to  our  college  in  one  sum,  f  30,000.  He  was  held  in 
honor  as  founder  of  Williston  Seminary,  a  liberal  patron  of  Mt. 
Holyoke  Seminary,  Amherst  College  and  other  institutions  of 
learning.  Service  as  a  legislator,  and  in  the  governor's  council, 
was  only  incident  to  his  career  as  one  of  the  intelligent  manufac 
turers  of  New  England.  He  was  the  pioneer  button-maker,  and 
led  in  the  fabrication  of  rubber  goods,  while  persistent  in  efforts  to 
establish  for  Americans  an  ideal  spool  thread.  The  story  of  his 
contest  with  a  foreign  article  is  one  of  heroism  and  sacrifice,  only 
relinquished  when  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  had  been 
expended  to  meet  the  demands  of  Americans.  His  better  pay  for 
labor  and  high-interest  account  did  not  furnish  the  full  occasion  of 
the  failure.  It  was  rather  a  colossal  foreign  combination  which 
led  to  his  defeat.  Still,  he  enjoyed  the  well-sounded  fame  of  a 
manufacturer,  whose  wealth  was  bestowed  in  the  spirit  of  a  broad 
philanthropy.  Childless,  his  great  heart  adopted  the  homeless, 
who  have  gone  forth  in  numbers  to  reflect  the  highest  social 
virtues. 

His  interest  in  Iowa  College  was  first  awakened  by  Dr.  J.  C. 
Holbrook,  octogenarian,  now  of  California,  who  early  told  the  story 
of  our  college,  seeking  an  endowment?  of  fifty  thousand  dollars. 
Mr.  Williston  had  knowledge  of  one  of  its  founders,  and  had  culti 
vated  the  zeal  of  an  apostle  of  Christian  education ;  and  from  his 
broad  brain  and  warm  heart  there  was  a  constant  flow  in  benefac 
tions.  The  first  pledge  was  a  conditional  one  of  twenty  thousand 
dollars,  but  knowing  how  sound  were  our  president's  views  on  the 
tariff  system,  and  the  high  temperance  standard  of  the  town,  in 
the  centre  of  the  state,  he  cheerfully  made  his  gift  absolute.  Later, 
on  visiting  Grinnell,  mingling  with  our  students  and  people,  he 
said  no  gift  of  his  life  had  afforded  him  more  pleasure,  adding,  "If 
my  business  will  allow  I  shall  increase  the  endowment  to  thirty 
thousand  dollars."  This  was  at  a  critical  epoch  in  our  history, 
when  he  attested  his  devotion  to  the  college,  notwithstanding  his 
great  losses.  Since  I  had  nothing  to  do  incipiently  in  enlisting  our 


REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY  TEARS.  337 

great  benefactor,  I  will  add,  though  it  may  seem  egotistical,  that  I 
sent  my  speech  in  Congress  to  him  in  favor  of  our  tariff,  contain 
ing  an  answer  to  the  rebel  threat  that  New  England  was  to  be 
"left  out  in  the  cold".  In  acknowledgment  he  said,  "I  have 
decided,  so  well  pleased  am  I  with  your  views,  to  add  ten  thousand 
dollars  to  my  original  investment,  which  has  given  me  unalloyed 
pleasure."  Thus  another  benefactor  needs  no  monument,  for  he 
lives  in  the  hearts  of  those  whom  he  would  elevate,  and  by  the 
memories  of  a  noble  citizen,  a  patriotic  American,  and  an  exem 
plary  Christian. 

J.    P.    WILLISTON, 

of  Northampton,  was  his  brother,  an  example  in  humble  giving 
which  inspired  others ;  and  he  became  an  eminent  example  by  his 
gifts  to  our  college  and  to  others.  He  was  a  man  of  eminent  self- 
sacrifice,  living  plainly  that  he  might  gladden  the  hearts  of  the 
poor  and  encourage  young  Christian  institutions  on  the  frontier. 

WILLIAM    E.    DODGE. 

This  name  recalls  the  lamented  philanthropist,  who  was  a 
Christian  laborer  and  munificent  giver ;  I  have  on  another  occasion 
held  him  to  be  the  model  Christian  statesman. 

I  pause  before  his  elegant  full  likeness 'in  bronze,  on  Broadway, 
New  Yorjk,  erected^  by  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  over  which  he 
so  long  presided.  I  visit  the  spacious  Home  for  Inebriates,  which 
he  endowed,  and  read  the  instructive  biographic  volume  by  his 
son,  Dr.  D.  Stuart  Dodge,  which  should  be  in  every  library, 
refreshing  to  young  and  old  in  review  of  the  life  of  a  princely  mer 
chant,  patriotic  congressman,  and  the  dispenser  of  millions  of  dol 
lars  for  the  education  and  elevation  of  our  people. 

It  was  about  twelve  thousand  dollars  which  he  gave  to  Iowa 
College  in  its  dark  hours,  but  as  drops  to  the  ocean  in  comparison 
with  the  measure  of  his  charities,  to  be  the  more  esteemed  in  asso 
ciation  with  the  counsels  of  his  life  and  the  prayers  which  fol 
lowed  his  gifts.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  Dodge  Professorship 
would  have  been  fully  endowed  had  his  life  been  spared  to  make  a 
desired  visit  to  Iowa,  whose  people,  in  their  intelligence  and  pro 
hibitory  temperance  legislation,  won  his  admiration.  From  the 


338  EEMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEAKS. 

surviving  members  of  the  family  the  college  is  still  the  recipient 
of  money  gifts,  prompted  by  the  same  spirit  which  helped  forward 
a  college  on  the  Bosphorus  and  in  most  of  our  States  in  the  Union. 

The  temperance  cause  has  lost  its  most  ardent  advocate  as  well 
as  its  most  liberal  patron,  the  national  organ  having  been  sustained 
by  him  financially  for  many  years ;  and  there  will  be  found  what 
is  not  known  to  the  public,  that  there  is  a  fund,  secured  by  his 
liberality  and  solicitation,  amounting  to  sixty  thousand  dollars,  the 
interest  of  which  will  be  used  for  the  suppression  of  intemperance. 
Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  colossal  wealth  of  the  deceased,  his 
warm  living  hand  has  disbursed  charity  in  millions  of  dollars, 
being  the  patron  of  colleges,  seminaries  and  academies  here  and  in 
all  lands  beyond  the  ocean,  and  more  than  thirty  men  are  ministers 
of  the  Gospel  who  gained  their  education  by  the  benefactions  of 
the  lamented  William  E.  Dodge.  Though  a  Presbyterian,  he  was 
the  vice-president  of  the  American  board,  and  the  largest  contribu 
tor  annually  to  missions,  which  was  an  index  to  a  character  never 
moved  by  clamor  and  built  up  in  adherence  to  sacred  principles. 
Thus  in  our  rebellion  he  was  a  patriot.  In  Congress  the  friend  of 
labor,  and  an  advocate  of  a  tariff  in  seeming  opposition  to  his  pecun 
iary  interest  as  an  importer.  His  last  public  speech  was  in  Cooper 
Institute,  with  Peter  Cooper  and  Evarts,  in  support  of  the  American 
system. 

Mr.  Dodge  was  a  most  accomplished  presiding  officer,  sagacious, 
quick  in  execution  and  genial.  Facts  in  moral  and  financial  dis 
cussions  he  marshalled  with  adroitness,  and  used  them  with  the  skill 
of  a  persuasive  orator.  He  never  wearied ;  nor  faltered  under  the 
heaviest  load  and  the  darkest  cloud,  but  as  a  great-hearted  friend 
he  will  longest  be  remembered. 

OAKES    AMES. 

It  was  by  a  casual  remark  on  leaving  Congress,  and  in  response 
to  the  good  wishes  of  Mr.  Ames,  that  I  said  he  could  best  show  his 
regard  for  me  by  endowing  a  professorship  in  Iowa  College.  His 
reply  was,  "What!  would  you  advise  me,  a  large  borrower  of 
money  and  with  the  Pacific  Railroad  on  my  back,  to  pledge  money 
to  a  college  ?  But  I  will  think  of  it."  He  set  out  after  years  of 
accumulation  to  carry  forward  a  great  work,  which  I  hoped  might 
keep  our  name  to  be  remembered  with  honor ;  but  there  was  some 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY    YEARS.  339 

doubt  in  the  midst  of  capricious  enemies.  I  took  a  hopeful  view 
of  the  Pacific  Railroad  scheme.  The  next  day  at  lunch  he  took 
out  his  memorandum  book,  and  wrote,  "I  propose  to  place  in  the 
hands  of  Mr.  J.  B.  Grinnell  six  thousand  dollars,  as  the  beginning 
of  a  professorship  in  Iowa  College  at  Grinnell." 

Years  passed,  and  knowing  of  his  troubles  by  false  and  timid 
friends,  and  observing  as  we  met  in  Boston  that  not  only  was  his 
credit  gone,  but  that  he  was  sinking  under  his  misfortunes,  it  was 
no  surprise  that  there  was  an  announcement  that  the  great-hearted 
Ames,  on  being  clouded  in  his  reputation  by  a  vote  of  Congress, 
had  died  of  a  broken  heart.  Later,  his  son,  Oliver  Ames,  since 
and  for  several  terms  an  honored  governor  of  the  Commonwealth  of 
Massachusetts,  wrote  me  as  follows :  "  I  find  a  pencil  memorandum 
made  by  my  father  some  years  ago,  proposing  to  give  six  thousand 
dollars  toward  a  professorship  in  Iowa  College.  You  know  of  his 
decease,  and  I  regret  to  inform  you  that  he  left  no  money  or  avail 
able  assets  to  meet  the  wishes  indulged  in  time  of  prosperity.  If 
there  should  be  a  turn  in  affairs  and  it  is  found  possible  to  do  any 
thing,  I  will  advise  you." 

It  is  a  happy  sequel  that,  before  he  was  a  candidate  for  gov 
ernor,  he  wrote,  "  I  think  I  can  pass  to  your  treasurer  bonds  to  the 
amount  of  six  thousand  dollars,  if  you  will  accept  them."  Later, 
he  sent  word  that  it  was  his  pleasure  to  cash  the  bonds  in  honor  of 
his  father  and  pay  the  interest  in  full  if  desired. 

This  act,  the  prompting  of  generosity,  I  made  public  in  honor 
of  father  and  son ;  and  I  united  in  a  volume  with  the  leading  men 
of  the  nation  in  vindication  of  the  motives  of  Mr.  Ames  in  regard 
to  the  "Credit  Mobilier",  and,  later,  called  out  the  car-loads  of 
passengers  to  cheer  in  the  shadow  of  the  monument  in  Wyoming, 
erected  in  honor  of  the  brothers,  builders  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad,  saying  that  their  names  would  be  remembered  with 
gratitude  — 

"  Until  the  sun  grows  cold, 
And  the  stars  are  old." 

MRS.    DANIEL    P.    STONE. 

By  solicitation  of  President  Magoun,  this  liberal  lady,  faithful 
to  the  benevolent  wishes  of  her  husband,  gave  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars  for  the  express  purpose  of  endowing  a  chair  of  natural  his- 


340  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

tory  for  Prof.  Henry  W.  Parker.  She  acted  in  consultation  with 
her  relative  and  wise  adviser,  Rev.  William  H.  Willcox,  D.  D.,  who 
by  request  writes  the  following: 

"  Mr  Daniel  P.  Stone,  a  Boston  merchant,  died  in  1878,  leaving 
an  estate  of  about  two  millions.  After  making  liberal  provision 
for  his  few  kindred,  he  gave  the  great  bulk  of  his  property  to  his 
widow,  '  to  do  with  it  whatsoever  she  saw  fit '.  She  at  once  made 
large  gifts  to  her  relatives,  in  anticipation  of  bequests  they  would 
otherwise  have  received  through  her  will,  and  then  proceeded  to 
give  away  the  remainder  to  needy  individuals  and  institutions.  I 
was  at  the  time  pastor  of  a  Congregational  Church  in  Reading, 
Mass.,  but,  having  married  a  dearly-loved  niece  of  Mrs.  Stone,  she 
invited  me  to  relinquish  my  parish  and  become  her  confidential 
adviser  in  the  distribution  of  her  fortune.  It  seemed  such  a  prov 
idential  call  that  I  could  not  refuse.  I  at  once  decided  that  no 
wiser  use  of  the  money  could  be  made  than  by  appropriating  it 
mainly  to  the  cause  of  Christian  education.  Mrs.  Stone  readily 
accepted  my  advice,  and  the  funds  of  our  colleges  and  seminaries 
were  increased  by  nearly  a  million  dollars." 

CORNELIUS    B.    ERWIN,    OF    NEW    BRITAIN,    CT. 

in  his  munificent  charities  Mr.  Erwin  remembered  Iowa  Col 
lege,  with  others  made  the  residuary  legatees.  The  manager  of 
the  estate  predicts  that  our  share  of  the  fund  will  be  at  from 
$25,000  to  $50,000.  It  is  an  instance  of  forecast  by  a  great  man 
ufacturer  and  warm  friend  of  the  American  system. 

Mr.  Erwin  truly  lent  dignity  to  the  manufacturer,  personally 
won  the  hearts  of  his  townsmen,  and  made  the  church  with  which 
he  was  associated  and  many  educational  institutions  his  debtors 
for  gifts  never  to  be  forgotten. 

OTHER    BENEFACTORS. 

Most  fortunate  is  our  state,  so  rich  in  nature  and  advancing 
with  rapid  stride  under  high  social  and  moral  conditions,  in  enlist 
ing  so  eminent  a  roll  of  benefactors,  for  its  first  Christian  college. 
I  shall  mention  the  names  of  many,  in  the  hope  that  their  spirit 
may  be  contagious,  and  in  further  belief  that  we  have  been  derelict 
in  recognition  of  our  obligations  to  those  who  have  not  only  given 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  341 

of  their  abundance  but  of  their  limited  income.  The  small  gifts 
of  those  omitted  may  outweigh  the  donations  of  thousands,  while  a 
mention  of  names  will  be  proof  that  the  college  would  honor  the 
children  by  a  remembrance  of  the  good  deeds  of  their  fathers,  gone 
to  their  reward. 

First  and  worthy  of  recall  are  those  early  associated  with  the 
founding  of  professorships,  in  an  institution  which  they  had  never 
seen  and  a  thousand  miles  from  their  homes. 

Preserve  Wood  Carter,  a  native  of  Wolcott,  Ct.,  and  an  extens 
ive  manufacturer  in  Waterbury,  Ct.,  was  the  founder  of  the  Carter 
Professorship.  His  son,  Franklin  Carter,  now  the  distinguished 
president  of  Williams  College,  wrote  me,  during  the  last  year, 
facts  from  which  I  glean  the  following : 

"Rev.  Ephraim  Adams,  Prof.  Erastus  Ripley  and  Rev.  Julius 
A.  Reed,  men  of  Davenport,  Iowa,  awakened  his  interest  in  Iowa 
College,  which  led  to  a  gift  of  five  thousand  dollars,  while  his 
entire  property  was  not  worth  over  fifty  thousand  dollars.  He 
enjoyed  giving,  but  never  gave  so  large  an  amount  to  any  other 
institution.  He  gave  to  Yale,  to  home  missions,  to  foreign  mis 
sions,  to  churches  and  local  charities.  Everything  that  related  to 
the  West  interested  him.  This  gift  was  a  great  thing  for  him," 
says  this  son,  "and  I  always  feel  that  I  have  inherited  a  right  to 
beg  for  this  college.  He  was  a  whig  and  republican.  My  earliest 
remembrance  of  politics  goes  back  to  the  campaign  of  1844,  and  I 
remember  standing  by  him  as  he  read  the  New  York  Tribune,  giv 
ing  the  details  -of  Clay's  defeat.  He  gave  utterance  to  the  feeling 
that  no  more  good  could  come  to  our  country.  He  was  of  an  ardent 
nature,  a  profound  believer  in  Calvinism,  and  named  his  eldest  son 
Calvin.  Neither  of  his  sons  has  accomplished  as  much,  consider 
ing  all  things,  as  he  accomplished.  I  am  very  glad  he  gave  that 
money  to  your  college,  but  he  died  worth  only  about  seventy-five 
thousand  dollars,  leaving  a  widow  and  three  sons.  I  am  the  last 
of  the  family  and  I  thank  God  for  such  a  father  and  mother  as  I 
had." 

Ebenezer  Alden,  M.  D.,  of  Randolph,  Mass.,  father  of  Secretary 
Alden,  of  the  American  Board,  gave  anatomical  models,  and,  after 
the  tornado,  replaced  the  set  with  a  more  valuable  one ;  also,  made 
bequest  of  $5,000  to  the  college,  to  be  increased  by  part  of  the 
interest  to  $10,000,  as  an  Alden  fund. 

In  the  East,  from  the  estate  of  John  C.  Whitin,  of  Whitinsville, 


342  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

Mass.  ($5,000),  and  Dr.  E.  Alden,  of  Boston,  money  came  for  the 
Museum,  supplemented  by  gifts,  already  mentioned,  from  Morris 
K.  Jesup,  the  benevolent  banker  of  New  York,  and  the  late  George 
H.  Corliss.  Wendell  Phillips  found  his  "next  friend"  with  a 
thousand  dollars,  while  Deacon  David  Whitcomb,  of  Worcester, 
Deacon  E.  Farnsworth  and  Samuel  Johnson,  of  Boston,  and  Wil 
liam  Hyde,  of  Ware,  Mass.,  on  more  than  one  occasion  in  extremity 
came  to  our  relief. 

The  burning  of  East  College  was  a  heavy  blow  which  enlisted 
new  friends,  among  whom  were  James  F.  Joy,  of  Detroit,  Nathaniel 
Thayer,  of  Boston,  and  B.  F.  Allen,  of  Des  Moines,  each  giving  a 
check  for  a  thousand  dollars,  followed  by  smaller  sums  from  J.  W. 
Brooks,  John  N.  Dennison  and  H.  H.  Hunnewell,  of  Boston. 

How  many  of  our  benefactors  have  passed  away  —  some  whom 
I  have  mentioned,  and  others  who  were  also  large  givers.  How 
fatally  wide  the  scythe  of  time  has  swept,  thinning  their  ranks. 
W.  E.  Dodge,  David  Dows  and  S.  B.  Chittenden,  of  New  York, 
John  F.  Slater,  of  Norwich,  Ct.,  Ethan  Rogers,  of  New  Jersey, 
Wendell  Phillips,  J.  Nickerson,  Deacon  David  Whitcomb  and  Dea 
con  Ezra  Farnsworth,  of  Massachusetts,  and  Frederick  Billings,  of 
Vermont,  have  during  the  last  eight  years  gone  to  their  reward. 

IOWA     BENEFACTORS. 

These  are  numerous.  The  earlier  gifts  were  by  self-denial,  the 
later  meaning  less  of  sacrifice,  but  prompted  by  confidence  in  the 
college  and  a  conviction  that  a  religious  college  was  one  of  the 
chief  demands  of  the  state.  The  zeal  of  our  patrons  is  not  to  be 
estimated  by  small  subscriptions,  but  in  association  with  numer 
ous  other  gifts  and  enlightened  Christian  zeal. 

SENATOR   AND    GOVERNOR   JAMES    W.    GRIMES 

was  peculiarly  an  adviser  and  friend,  supplementing  his  interest  in 
popular  education  by  the  gift  of  a  valuable  section  of  land,  to 
which  Mrs.  Grimes  has  added  money,  making  a  total  sum  of  ten 
thousand  dollars.  Governor  Grimes  was  pleased  with  the  rural 
central  location  of  the  college,  and  predicted  that  it  would  at  an 
early  day  rival  our  best  eastern  institutions.  He  provided  that 
promising  students  should  be  aided  by  his  gifts,  in  perpetuity. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETT   YEAES.  343 

REV.    JOB    CUSHMAN 

was  a  lineal  descendent  of  Robert  Cushman,  deceased  in  1625,  who 
preached  the  first  sermon  printed  in  America.  Its  subject  was 
"  The  sin  and  danger  of  self-love  ",  and  it  was  dated  1621.  It  was 
at  an  early  day  that  he  came  to  Grinnell,  and  he  is  remembered  as 
a  singular  character,  of  warm  attachments  and  decided  conviction. 
In  the  East  a  pastor  for  nearly  a  half  century,  he  had  witnessed 
the  struggles  of  poor  clergymen,  and  was  pained  at  their  neglect 
in  old  age.  In  the  town  of  Chester,  near  Grinnell,  he  made  an 
entry  of  a  large  tract  of  land,  from  the  profits  of  which  he  estab 
lished  a  fund  for  poor  ministers.  Iowa  College,  later,  awakened 
his  sympathy,  and  he  gave  a  liberal  sum  toward  ornamenting  the 
campus,  and  other  moneys  amounting  to  six  or  seven  thousand 
dollars,  in  bequest  on  his  death.  Old  age  ended  his  career  and  he 
was  buried  in  our  cemetery  after  affectionate  care  for  him  in  his 
sickness.  The  college  erected  a  suitable  marble  testimonial  to  his 
memory. 

CHARLES    F.    DYKE. 

This  gentleman,  an  eastern  manufacturer,  fortunately  for  Iowa 
College  married  the  daughter  of  the  Rev.  S.  L.  Herrick  (now  Mrs. 
J.  M.  Chamberlain),  early  a  professor  and  for  a  quarter  of  a  cen 
tury  a  trustee  of  the  college.  Mr.  Dyke  was  a  large-hearted 
philanthropist,  and  the  needs  of  the  colored  people  at  the  South 
awakened  his  attention  while  living,  and,  at  death,  his  bequests 
amounted  to  a  large  sum.  His  stay  in  our  city  was  not  long,  ill- 
health  requiring  a  change  to  the  Pacific  coast.  His  dust,  however, 
reposes  here  in  Hazelwood  Cemetery.  He  was  a  noble  character; 
and  some  seven  or  eight  thousand  dollars  came  from  his  estate  to 
our  almost  empty  treasury.  The  kindly  offices  of  Mr.  Herrick  and 
his  daughter,  Mrs.  Dyke,  here  deserve  grateful  mention. 

REV.    J.    M.    CHAMBERLAIN. 

Apart  from  gifts,  there  are  few  persons  who  have  been  longer 
associated  with  the  institution,  and  none  in  more  honorable  service, 
than  Eev.  J.  M.  Chamberlain.  For  nearly  twenty  years  he  was 
treasurer,  and  now  is  acting  librarian,  not  prompted  by  a  salary, 


344  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

rather  by  the  impulses  of  a  scholar.  On  the  board  of  control  for 
twenty-five  years  his  counsels  have  been  marked  by  conservatism, 
together  with  vigilance  and  wisdom. 

The  scheme  for  a  circle  of  ladies'  cottages  was  especially  cham 
pioned  by  Mr.  Chamberlain,  but  involved  a  plat  of  ground  which 
the  college  did  not  own.  The  tornado  wrecked  his  home  in  the 
midst  of  a  vacant  square  adjoining  the  campus,  and  he  transformed 
his  calamity  into  a  gift  of  benevolence  —  a  ladies'  campus  annex  to 
be  improved  and  occupied.  The  gift  was  large  and  opportune,  and 
a  reflection  of  the  generosity  of  one  who  at  the  corner-stone  dedi 
cation,  in  clear  and  winning  speech,  won  most  hearty  plaudits. 
The  generosity  of  our  friend  and  his  wife  will  find  a  heartier  appre 
ciation  in  the  lapse  of  time,  when  a  fine  group  of  buildings  in  good 
service  shall  crown  the  aspirations  of  the  givers. 

SETH   RICHARDS. 

This  gentleman  of  Yankee  birth  was  broadened  by  the  pioneer 
activities  and  environments  related  to  an  eventful  career.  It  is 
thirty-five  years  since,  on  a  Sunday  morning,  he  left  the  stage-coach, 
walking  miles  to  reach  our  prairie  school-house  in  sight,  to  become 
a  worshipper  rather  than  a  stage-traveler.  He  became  my  guest, 
and,  after  listening  to  our  educational  plans,  said,  "  My  ideal  town 
will  have  a  church,  and  the  model  state  a  Christian  college." 
This  was  in  keeping  with  his  early  agency  in  determining  a  site  for 
the  college,  eventually  located  at  Davenport.  The  public  is  in 
doubt,  alike  as  to  the  sum  of  Mr.  Richards'  benefactions  and  of  his 
total  wealth ;  but  it  is  no  mere  guess  that  his  gifts  have  been  large 
and  discriminating,  and  that  he  is  one  of  the  few  wealthy  men  of 
our  state.  Bentonsport,  Iowa,  has  for  near  fifty  years  been  nom 
inally  his  home.  Later,  in  Oakland,  Cal.,-  he  has  erected  a  mansion 
(from  which  his  esteemed  wife  has  just  passed  away  to  her  reward), 
in  view  of  an  institution  of  learning,  which  is  said  to  have  shared 
largely  in  his  benefactions.  I  do  not  even  venture  an  opinion  as 
to  the  measure  of  his  charities,  but  recall  how  welcome  was  the 
announcement  that  the  gift  of  the  Christian  philanthropist  was 
$20,000,  the  income  of  which  was  to  be  used  in  perpetuity  for 
the  Richards  professorship  of  Iowa  College.  Bravely  does  our 
friend  meet  the  infirmities  of  an  octogenarian,  while  maintaining 
a  lively  interest  in  our  temperance  issue,  and  the  success  of  that 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY  YEARS.  345 

party  which  he  has  ever  upheld  for  its  devotion  to  the  American 
financial  policy,  not  less  than  to  its  constitutional  guarantees  for 
the  freedmen. 

EX-GOV.    SAMUEL    MERRILL    AND    J.    H.    MERRILL. 

The  interest  of  these  brothers  in  Iowa  College  dates  back  to 
ante-bellum  times,  when  residents  of  MacGregor,  Iowa.  After  the 
tornado,  Mr.  J.  H.  Merrill,  a  Christian  financier  of  the  highest 
rank,  aided  in  restoring  our  wastes  in  the  sum  of  $5,000,  since 
added  to  by  liberal  amounts  and  expenditure  of  time  and  thought 
in  the  interests  of  the  institution,  of  which  he  has  long  been  a 
trustee,  and  from  which  his  son  and  daughter  have  graduated 
with  honor.  At  a  late  day  the  Ex-Governor  handed  me  a  proposal 
and  obligation  to  found  a  professorship  in  the  sum  of  $20,000. 
Bonds  and  stocks  have  been  passed  to  the  treasury  as  an  earnest 
of  the  good  faith  of  the  donor.  Mr,  Merrill  served  the  state 
officially  with  great  credit,  and  has  been  successfully  engaged  in 
railway  construction  and  as  president  of  the  Citizens'  Bank,  Des 
Moines.  The  precarious  health  of  Mrs.  Merrill,  deceased,  and  of 
their  son,  required  a  change  of  climate,  and  he  is,  we  trust,  only 
temporarily  a  resident  of  Kialto,  California. 

EDWIN    MANNING. 

The  name  of  this  gentleman,  a  resident  of  Keosauqua,  Iowa, 
has  been  as  a  household  word  in  the  Des  Moines  valley  for  nearly 
fifty  years.  My  first  vote  in  Iowa  was  cast  for  him  as  a  state 
officer.  It  was  his  last  official  trust,  for  he  often  declined  promo 
tion,  while  in  the  varied  roll  of  pioneer  land-owner,  merchant  and 
banker,  his  policies  have  been  wise,  and  in  executions  of  great 
trusts  he  has  shown  that  fidelity  and  broad  patriotism  which  gave 
him  high  rank  as  a  war-patriot.  The  millionaires  of  the  dark 
hours  among  whom  he  is  classed,  were  esteemed  the  cautious. 
Not  of  this  class  was  Mr.  Manning,  who  offered  of  his  money  and 
his  credit  to  equip  the  soldiers,  when  compelled  to  decline  a  field 
office  in  our  late  war.  Mr.  Manning,  now  passed  his  four-score 
years,  is  full  of  vigor  and  takes  a  lively  interest  in  the  great  moral, 
social  and  financial  questions  of  his  time,  being  an  ardent  repub 
lican.  Repeated  have  been  his  gifts  to  Iowa  College,  now 


346  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

expanded  to  a  tract  of  land  in  Iowa  of  the  value  of  $20,000, 
which  the  guardians  of  that  institution  will  regard  the  more  highly 
for  the  eminent  character  of  the  donor. 


LEONARD    F.    PARKER. 

It  was  by  a  good  fortune  before  mentioned,  that  Professor  and 
Mrs.  Parker  became  associated  with  Grinnell  University,  and  later 
with  Iowa  College.  The  invitations  to  become  a  professor  in  the 
State  University  at  Iowa  City  were  earnest  and  prolonged,  resulting 
in  an  absence  of  twenty  years,  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  another 
institution,  while  our  loss  was  in  corresponding  measure.  He 
returned  to  us  with  native  enthusiasm,  to  fill  the  chair  of  his 
choice.  Was  it  in  memory  of  labors  and  sacrifices  here,  that  here 
in  our  cemetery  reposes  the  sacred  dust  of  his  children,  and  that  the 
warm  devotion  of  long  and  partial  friends  overcame  all  obstacles 
to  a  return,  to  take  up  the  congenial  labors  of  his  early  life.  Such 
may  seem  the  three-fold  cord  to  allure  and  bind.  There  are  other 
facts,  not  now  for  the  public,  which  are  significant  of  the  generos 
ity  of  a  friend  and  his  devotion  to  the  college.  Professor  Parker, 
in  addition  to  faculty  service,  is  officially  appointed  to  write  an 
educational  history  of  Iowa,  which  can  but  be  of  interest  to  her 
youth  and  their  guardians,  while  the  freshness  and  vigor  of  his 
occasional  addresses  and  sermons,  cause  an  exhaustive  demand  upon 
his  time. 

The  Leonard  F.  Parker  professorship  is  as  assured  as  the  solid 
ity  of  our  finances  and  the  perpetuity  of  our  institution. 

ALONZO    STEELE. 

If  true  that  "  a  prophet  is  not  without  honor  save  in  his  own 
country  ",  it  is  not  always  true  that  a  college  is  not  held  in  honor 
at  home. 

Mr.  Steele,  of  Arcade,  N.  Y.,  a  farmer  and  manufacturer,  was 
attracted  to  Grinnell  by  the  college,  on  which  he  has  bestowed  a 
gift  of  $20,000.  This  home  endorsement  is  of  peculiar  signifi 
cance  and  value,  for  its  founders  were  his  friends ;  the  finances 
were  managed  with  business  care,  while  a  corps  of  able  professors 
won  his  regard  not  less  than  the  students  and  graduates. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  347 

Our  friend  is  yet  robust,  at  over  seventy  years,  and  takes  a 
lively  interest  in  public  affairs,  while  the  prosperity  of  the  college 
is  a  welcome  theme.  Says  the  generous  giver,  "When  I  saw 
plainly  the  path  of  duty  I  had  the  decision  to  walk  in  it.  Leav 
ing  large  amounts  to  children  often  brings  more  evil  than  good. 
I  was  not  permitted  to  have  a  liberal  education,  and  have  often 
felt  the  want  of  it,  and  it  will  be  a  pleasure  while  I  live,  to  see  the 
graduates  starting  out,  and  to  know  that  they  can  speak  and  act 
well,  after  we  have  passed  away." 

The  name  of  the  professorship  is  only  an  incident  to  its  found 
ing  and  value,  yet  most  appropriate.  There  was  a  daughter,  Myra, 
a  lovely  character,  who  passed  away  when  budding  into  the  beauty 
of  womanhood.  Her  life  was  a  cherished  memory,  now  enshrined 
in  the  endowment  of  the  Myra  Steele  Professorship. 

Other  townsmen  might  be  added  to  this  list  if  it  were  permit 
ted  to  mention  their  names.  Mr.  L.  N.  Sherman  is  not  spared  in 
life  to  protest,  and  his  memory  is  fragrant  in  association  with  early 
gifts,  and  a  later  one  of  $  1,000,  supplemented  by  a  generous  pro 
vision  of  his  will,  which  in  a  contingency  leaves  a  large  sum  to 
the  college.  He  well  represented  the  many  intelligent  and  noble 
people  of  our  adjoining  Christian  town  of  Chester,  which  has  not 
only  given  material  aid  in  our  needs,  but  also  sent  hither  many  of 
our  best  students. 

LADY    DONORS. 

The  "  Lords "  are  not  alone  the  recipients  of  the  honors  of  wise 
stewardship. 

Mrs.  E-and,  of  Burlington,  Iowa,  is  one  of  our  later  but  not  less 
valued  friends.  Her  husband,  the  late  Hon.  E.  D.  Rand,  held  the 
place  of  one  of  Iowa's  most  liberal  givers  to  the  church;  and  as 
legislator,  financier,  was  one  of  our  noblemen.  Iowa  College  was 
in  his  thoughts,  but  he  could  safely  leave  the  disposition  of  prop 
erty  to  one  so  long  of  his  spirit,  and  who,  on  the  death  of  a  favor 
ite  grandson,  has  made  a  gift  in  memorial  for  the  founding  of  the 
Gear  Professorship,  the  sum  being  $25,000.  Coincident  it  is  our 
further  good  fortune  to  elect  the  son  a  trustee.  He  brings  the 
guarantees  of  the  career  of  an  educated  gentleman  that  the  fam 
ily  trust-fund  will  be  well  expended,  and  the  weal  of  the  college 
promoted. 


348  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEAES. 

MRS.    LAVINIA    PIERCE. 

This  lady  was  of  Cummington,  Mass.,  and  twenty  years  ago 
gave  $1,000  for  a  ladies'  educational  fund,  from  which  has  flowed 
a  rill  refreshing  the  spirit  and  smoothing  the  way  for  indigent 
but  worthy  lady  students. 

MRS.    WILLIAM    E.    DODGE. 

This  generous  benefactor  has  supplemented  the  $10,000  given 
by  her  husband  in  the  sum  of  $1200,  the  income  of  which  is 
appropriated  to  students  of  promise. 

MRS.    R.    D.    STEPHENS. 

The  widow  of  an  honored  trustee,  to  whose  place  she  was 
elected,  she,  with  the  same  spirit,  has  made  repeated  and  liberal 
gifts.  Her  home  is  in  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa. 

MRS.    HARRIET    B.    SCOTT, 

the  wife  of  one  of  our  early  pioneers,  and  now  at  an  advanced  age, 
has  seen  great  good  flowing  from  the  early  generosity  of  herself 
and  her  husband,  Mr.  Anor  Scott,  and  has  made  the.  college  a  gift 
of  several  thousand  dollars. 

In  concluding  the  names  of  our  noble  friends,  there  is  one,  a 
character  whose  name,  if  I  were  permitted  to  write  it,  has  a  sacred 
designation  in  doing  "more  than  they  all".  The  long  roll  given 
mainly  represents  those  who  have  given  of  their  abundance,  while 
the  founder  of  the  Ellwood  fund  gave  of  his  living.  But  who  is 
he  ?  His  name  and  benefactions  must  be  unknown  until  the  ear  is 
deaf  to  human  praise.  Bowed  with  years  and  trembling,  he  leans 
on  a  staff.  In  the  circle  of  prayer  he  is  heard  in  broken  emotional 
accents.  Copious  tears  flow  on  the  mention  of  good  news  for  the 
college.  He  waits  patiently  to  end  his  pilgrimage,  following  his 
family  to  the  home  beyond.  His  large  gifts  came  almost  without 
suggestion,  and  in  the  reflection  that  a  feeble  old  man  had  long 
rested  on  a  Divine  arm,  and  that  home  bereavement  made  it  possi 
ble  in  the  exercise  of  faith  to  link  the  departed  Ellwood  with  those 
who  should  preach  that  gospel  which  for  more  than  a  half  century 
had  been  the  giver's  solace  and  trust.  This  is  the  Christian 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY  TEARS.  349 

mechanic  whose  poverty  compels  frugality,  and  whose  threadbare 
clothing  hides  the  heart  of  a  nobleman,  never  weary  in  the  men 
tion  of  the  love  of  Christ,  nor  fearful  of  hunger  though  made  poor 
by  pecuniary  sacrifices  which  in  the  education  of  others  may  bring 
delight  to  him  and  honor  to  his  Saviour. 

OUR    RELATIONS    TO    THE    STATE    UNIVERSITY. 

As  the  oldest  collegiate  institution  this  side  of  the  Mississippi, 
Iowa  College  has  a  right  to  exist,  and  independently ;  and  it  will 
so  continue.  There  is  room  for  the  State  University,  with  post 
graduate  and  special  courses,  in  accord  with  the  popular  ideas. 
There  is,  also,  a  field  large  enough  for  denominational  colleges.  It 
has  been  cultivated  without  unseemly  rivalry  and  friction.  With 
these  advantages,  tax-payers  are  restive  under  their  indirect 
burdens  in  educating  lawyers,  now  too  numerous,  and  in  support  of 
certain  schools  of  medicine,  when  the  public  demand  may  be  met 
without  state  aid.  The  present  policy  savors  of  favoritism  and 
cannot  in  reason  long  survive  the  edicts  of  popular  opinion. 

Then  there  has  emanated,  from  those  enjoying  state  patronage, 
an  unseemly  decrying  of  the  colleges,  with  a  proposition  to  mass  all 
in  an  overshadowing  university  to  lessen  cost  and  gain  the  fame  of 
an  Oxford.  Without  questioning  the  motives  of  the  agitators,  I 
deprecated  the  scheme  as  Utopian,  using  this  language : 

"  It  must  be  only  a  wild  and  chimerical  scheme,  the  bringing  of 
four  thousand  students  together,  involving  an  appropriation  of  a 
million  of  dollars  for  buildings,  and  tens  of  thousands  annually  for 
instructors,  which  could  find  no  advocates  save  in  a  locality,  or  by 
those  depreciating  the  scholarship  in  the  colleges  and  indifferent 
save  in  the  advocacy  of  a  scheme  where  there  should  be  no  relig 
ious  basis. 

"The  suggestion  is  at  once  chimerical  and  revolting.  Fathers 
and  mothers  ask  not  how  cheap  is  the  college,  but  what  strength 
will  it  bring ;  how  high  a  standard  in  morals,  and  what  perils  will 
be  escaped.  Iowa  colleges  are  founded  in  the  philosophy  of  the 
fathers,  and  have  been  and  will  be  cherished  with  the  devotion  of 
Christian  patriots.  As  a  rule  the  attractions  of  education  have 
secured  electic  affinities,  the  localizing  of  families  whose  virtuous 
execration,  joined  with  instincts  of  self  preservation,  have  made 
the  saloon  and  correlated  infamies  to  share  the  fate  of  hated 


350  EEMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

exotics.  No,  no,  owls  and  bats  shall  never  occupy  our  vacated 
college  halls  at  the  behest  of  jealously  false  economy,  or  the  dic 
tation  of  pedantry  and  shallow  statecraft.  Founders,  who  watched 
college  growth  with  a  devotion  kindred  to  that  felt  for  their  chil 
dren,  shall  not  live  to  witness  such  perversity,  nor  will  the  van 
dalism  toppling  the  shafts  in  the  cemetery  and  defaming  the 
names  of  our  honored  dead,  be  imitated  by  even  grosser  acts  of  sac 
rilege  in  razing  the  college  walls  made  vocal  with  the  grateful 
praise  of  occupants,  fitted  and  schooled  therein  for  life's  toils  by 
the  generous  founders  of  professorships,  whose  fame  and  fortune 
can  never  be  clouded  and  absorbed  in  a  state  pool. 

"But  this  is  the  crowning  consideration  and  fatal  to  the 
scheme.  You  cannot  hide  the  deformity  of  the  old  lie,  that  there 
can  be  the  highest  and  completest  education  without  a  thoroughly 
religious  influence.  '  Sectarianism,'  often  unjustly  charged  upon 
Christian  colleges,  is  another  thing,  and  has  been  carefully  avoided 
by  Iowa  College." 

A    COLLEGE    TRUST. 

I  may  be  somewhat  singular  in  the  views  I  here  offer,  but  it  is 
more  than  a  conviction ;  it  is  a  fact  that  ninety-nine  hundredths  of 
our  funds  came  from  the  adherents  of  a  national  protective  policy, 
who  believed  that  their  prosperity  was  due  to  it.  What  trustee, 
remembering  this,  can  be  indifferent  to  a  palpable,  implied  obliga 
tion?  Where  can  be  found  a  real  excuse  for  a  divergence  until 
there  is  an  essential  change  in  our  commercial  relations  ?  What 
else  would  it  be  than  a  grave  dereliction  and  reproach  to  the  dead, 
and  an  offense  to  their  kindred. 

It  does  not  meet  the  case  to  say,  "There  is  a  toleration  of  the 
silent  patrons  and  we  give  all  sides ".  No !  he  that  is  not  for  is 
against,  in  a  sharp  issue.  Certainly  there  has  been  no  doubt  as  to 
the  instruction  in  political  economy  in  Iowa  College  in  the  past; 
it  must  have  been  a  great  controlling  fact  in  the  minds  of  some  of 
our  benefactors.  Strict  fidelity,  then,  in  the  use  of  trust  funds  will 
not  overlook  the  known  wishes  of  testator  and  friend,  though  not 
written.  There  will  be  more  than  respect  for  the  prudent  and 
sagacious  patrons  who,  if  permitted  to  speak,  would  execrate  a 
departure  for  which  there  is  no  excuse  found  in  radical  and 
changed  economical  relations. 


CHAPTEE  XXII. 

The   Tornado    of  1882 —  Descriptive    Incidents  —  Relation    to    the 
Town  —  Visit  to  Princely  Givers  —  Personals. 

REMINISCENCES  of  the  Grinnell  tornado  may  be  prefaced  with 
one  of  the  most  vivid  descriptions,  of  which  there  were  hundreds, 
of  this  direful  storm.  It  is  from  the  pen  of  Kev.  David  0.  Mears 
D.  D.,  of  Worcester,  Mass.  He,  as  the  Iowa  college  orator  for 
that  year,  was  on  the  ground,  and  not  only  witnessed  the  desola 
tion,  but  stimulated  the  courage  of  those  who  were  enlisted  in  the 
work  of  restoration. 

THE    TORNADO. 

"The  17th  of  June,  1882,  in  Grinnell,  was  a  day  of  terror 
and  of  death.  All  through  the  sunshine  the  sky  seemed  a  cur 
tain,  above  which  the  intolerable  heat  could  not  find  a  vent.  Not 
a  breath  of  air  moved  even  the  topmost  leaves  of  the  highest  trees. 
The  grass,  parched  by  the  burning  heat,  rustled  like  silk,  beneath 
the  tread  of  men  who  ventured  upon  their  errands.  Even  the  chil 
dren  gave  way  to  the  oppressiveness  of  the  day,  and  waited  for  the 
sun  to  set.  The  cattle  sought  the  shade  of  the  trees,  but  panted 
for  breath,  as  if  between  them  and  the  sun  there  was  no  foliage. 
They  sniffed  the  air  in  fear  of  what  men  did  not  see.  The  birds 
winged  a  hurried  flight  before  the  storm-clouds  for  safety. 

"The  evening  gave  no  rest.  From  an  hour  before  sunset,  hurry 
ing  clouds  banked  the  western  sky.  These  clouds,  colored  with 
green  and  yellow  and  crimson,  swayed  to  and  fro  in  malignant 
shape,  arresting  attention  through  their  fantastic  changes.  As  if 
to  keep  company  with  such  furies,  a  rising  gale  swept  the  heated 
streets  and  homes.  At  eight  o'clock,  after  the  sunset,  the  huge 
clouds  put  on  their  deepest  black,  as  of  mourning  for  what  was  to 


352  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY    YEARS. 

come.  Following  a  fierce  thunder-gust  of  rain,  and  a  brief,  deathly 
calm,  at  a  quarter  past  eight,  the  black  funnel-shaped  cloud  was 
seen,  making  its  awful  course.  Within  its  sable  folds  the  caged 
lightnings  were  at  their  horrid  play.  Almost  in  a  moment  of 
time  there  was  the  fearful  terror  of  blackness  and  the  deadly 
roar — and  all  was  still  as  if  the  shrill  whistling  train  of  death 
were  passed. 

"  There  was  only  death  and  ruin  left  in  its  track,  save  where 
people  had  hidden  in  cellars,  some  of  whom  were  yet  prisoners 
beneath  the  debris.  Buildings  had  been  tossed  like  egg  shells 
from  their  foundations.  Freight  trains  with  many  cars  had  been 
seized  by  the  fiery  hands  and  tossed  off  the  track.  The  ponderous 
locomotive  had  been  lifted  from  its  standing  place  as  children  toss 
their  toys.  Trees  within  its  track  were  twisted  from  their  roots, 
some  one  way,  and  some  another,  by  the  electric  forces  in  their 
havoc  and  play.  The  spokes  of  wheels  were  twisted  from  their 
hubs  by  a  process  no  man  has  discovered.  Carriages  were  lifted 
from  the  street  and  lodged  in  the  tops  of  trees.  Human  beings 
were  seized  by  the  terrible  blast  and  carried  away  hundreds  of 
feet,  and  left  among  the  ruins  that  had  covered  from  sight  the 
streets  and  gardens.  Huge  timbers  were  driven  deep  into  the 
earth  as  no  ponderous  hammers  could  drive  them.  The  college 
buildings  of  stone  and  brick  were  crumbled  under  the  crunching 
hand  of  destruction.  For  the  width  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  the 
prostrated  ruins  were  a  monument  of  death.  Thirty-two  dead 
bodies  were  left  as  its  evidences,  while  nearly  a  hundred  persons 
more  were  seriously  wounded.  Soldiers,  who  had  seen  the  field 
after  the  battle,  declared  the  tornado  an  avenger  even  above  war 
itself.  The  City  Hall,  as  a  morgue,  revealed  a  power  putting  the 
pestilence  as  mortally  slow." 

Never  was  destruction  so  met  by  sympathy  from  all  sources. 
The  position  of  the  city  upon  the  question  of  morals  and  educa 
tion,  was  a  reason  for  quickening  the  responses  for  help  the  coun 
try  over.  Nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  was  given  in  funds 
to  relieve  the  town  and  the  college. 

The  dead  were  not  buried  when  the  founder  of  the  town  started 
out  for  assistance.  City  and  college  were  on  his  heart.  Before 
the  boards  of  trade  in  Chicago  and  New  York  he  made  his 
plea  for  the  people  whose  interests  seemed  his  own.  Among  the 
prominent  churches  of  the  land,  he  plead  their  cause.  He  was 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS.  353 

introduced  to  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn,  by  Rev.  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  whose  words  were  reported  in  a  daily  paper.* 

The  greetings  of  the  churches  of  the  country  were  hearty  and 
emphatic,  like  that  of  the  Plymouth  Church.  The  first  substan 
tial  messages  of  sympathy  were  from  the  writer's  life-long 
friends,  William  E.  Dodge  and  Wendell  Phillips.  The  spirit  of  the 
business  men  was  signalled  by  that  of  John  V.  Farwell  of  Chicago, 
who  said  to  his  clerk,  "If  Grinnell  does  not  come  around  for  help 
to-day,  send  him  a  thousand  dollars  to-morrow."  In  Boston,  it 
was  the  same  as  in  New  York  and  Chicago.  Over  the  stricken 
city,  there  was  a  common  sympathy  from  those  whose  names  were 
and  are  a  tower  of  strength.  Autograph-seekers  would  find  great 
joy,  could  they  only  get  the  signatures  of  the  generous  contribu 
tors  to  the  relief  of  our  suffering  town.  It  is  somewhat  indicative 
of  the  power  of  sympathy  over  merely  church  lines,  that  of  some 
forty  thousand  dollars  raised  by  the  writer  among  his  business 
acquaintances,  for  Iowa  College,  in  a  few  months,  not  more  than 
ten  thousand  came  from  members  of  the  same  denomination  as  the 
College. 

Such  a  universal  sympathy  gave  courage  to  the  desolated  town. 
Upon  the  following  week  was  to  occur  the  college  commencement; 
what  should  be  done  ?  In  reply  to  a  telegram  of  inquiry  from  one 
who  had  been  invited  to  deliver  an  address  upon  the  occasion,  Mr. 
Grinnell  replied:  "Come,  and  speak;  church  not  destroyed.  Col 
lege  will  go  on  with  buildings  destroyed."  In  the  city  shadowed 
by  the  awful  event  of  the  week  before,  the  friends  of  the  College 


*  "  Not  long  after  I  came  to  Brooklyn  I  was  associated  with  a  preacher  who  is 
now  on  this  platform,  who  was,  however,  obliged  on  account  of  failing  health  to 
remove  from  the  East  to  the  then  hardly  settled  State  of  Iowa,  and  purchased 
large  landed  interests  there.  Mr.  Grinnell  has  devoted  his  life  to  the  welfare  of 
that  state,  and  very  properly  the  city  of  Grinnell  took  not  only  his  name  but  that 
of  his  ancestors  in  New  York  and  Massachusetts.  In  that  city  Mr.  Grinnell  has 
been  everything  —  except  a  bad  man.  (Laughter.)  He  has  been  railway  receiver, 
college  trustee,  member  of  the  state  Senate,  member  of  Congress,  president  of  the 
University,  but  I  think  not  anything  military ;  but  he  has  been  a  farmer,  a  lawyer, 
a  preacher,  and  everything  by  turns  —  a  thoroughgoing  Yankee.  Largely  owing, 
perhaps  wholly  owing  to  his  zeal  and  enterprise,  the  college  was  founded  in  the 
city  of  Grinnell,  and  his  influence  has  been  felt  for  good  all  over  the  city  and  in 
every  part  of  the  state,  and  we  are  only  waiting  for  him  to  die  to  make  a  very 
remarkable  man  of  him ;  and  I  hope  we  may  wait  a  great  many  years.  He  comes 
before  you  this  evening  to  speak,  at  my  request,  of  the  great  temperance  victory 
that  has  been  won  in  Iowa,  and  also  of  the  tornado  disaster  that  has  befallen  that 
state,  and  I  have  much  pleasure  in  introducing  to  you  J.  B'  Grinnell,  of  Iowa." 


354  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

met  to  leave  no  broken  commencement.  The  students  left  the 
bedsides  of  the  injured  to  perform  their  parts.  Papers  of  the 
injured  were  read  by  those  able  to  do  them  such  a  service. 

Without  a  building  upon  the  campus,  there  went  forth  the 
invincible  spirit  that  of  itself  invited  new  students  in  good  num 
bers  the  coming  term.  While  the  fires  were  smouldering  beneath 
the  ruins  of  one  building,  a  new  cornerstone  was  laid  with  impres 
sive  services.  A  poem  by  Professor  Parker  was  given,  also  an 
eloquent  address  by  President  Magoun.  Then  the  writer  was 
introduced,  as  a  speaker.  He  had  just  returned  from  Chicago, 
cheered  by  the  responses  there.  He  declared  that  this  was  no 
time  for  groans.  He  reminded  that  only  God  had  been  here,  who 
tempers  the  winds  to  the  shorn  lamb.  He  saw  in  the  desolation  a 
new  advertisement  for  the  college.  He  spoke  of  the  older  build 
ings  that  were  in  ruins;  and  reminded  them  that  the  new  shall 
exceed  the  old  in  beauty.  With  a  thought  of  the  humorous,  he 
said  that  there  were  less  trees  on  the  campus  than  formerly.  It 
seemed  a  rude  act  in  the  sight  of  some  to  cut  away  any  of  the 
trees;  but  now  the  storm  has  given  sunlight.  But  not  alone  the 
sunlight;  the  speaker  referred  to  the  hand  of  the  Almighty  in 
this  great  stroke.  At  the  same  time  he  wished  it  distinctly  under 
stood  that  there  was  not  one  chance  in  twenty-five  millions  of  a 
tornado  ever  striking  the  same  place  again.  Heroism  in  the  line 
of  duty  was  stirred  to  its  depths  by  his  recital  of  the  fact  that  the 
only  uninjured  thing  in  all  that  devastation  was  the  slab,  in  one  of 
the  destroyed  buildings,  on  which  were  chiselled  the  names  of  the 
dead  soldiers  who  had  left  the  college  for  the  war. 

Under  the  azure  of  that  beautiful  sky  which  only  a  few  days 
before  had  been  swept  by  the  terrible  tempest,  the  resurrected  col 
lege  came  into  view.  The  famous  words  of  Marius  have  been 
handed  down  the  centuries,  words  sent  back  to  Kome  as  a  confes 
sion  of  his  weakness :  "  Tell  the  Praetor  that  you  have  seen  Caius 
Marius,  a  fugitive,  sitting  on  the  ruins  of  Carthage."  A  sentiment 
like  this  found  no  place  either  in  the  city  or  college  of  Grinnell.  It 
was  rather  the  heroism  of  the  Pilgrims  by  the  side  of  the  returning 
Mayflower,  refusing  to  return  even  though  it  might  save  some  of 
the  lives  not  already  sacrificed. 

My  diary  of  the  electric  tornado  of  June  17,  1882,  is  not  a 
brief  one.  Never  in  our  nation's  annals  has  there  been  recorded 
a  more  devastating  track  by  a  storm.  In  chronology  it  is  the  day 


EEMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY   YEARS.  355 

and  the  month  of  the  historic  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  June  17. 
Being  a  speaker  for  the  state  constitutional  amendment  against  the 
saloon  policy,  I  was  West  at  the  city  of  Atlantic  that  night,  con 
tending  against  oppressive  heat,  in  ignorant  unconcern  for  our  peo 
ple,  where  houses  were  wrecked  and  the  occupants,  a  hundred  or 
more,  were  maimed,  and  forty  meeting  death  by  the  storm.  A 
trivial  loss  was  our  college  buildings,  the  pride  of  the  town,  com 
pared  to  the  sad  fate  of  two  noble  students  buried  in  the  ruins, 
and  others  seriously  maimed.  Mr.  Royce,  superintendent  of  the 
Eock  Island  Koad,  dispatched  a  train  for  me,  giving  but  an  inti 
mation  of  the  extent  of  the  ruin.  While  the  train  was  making 
fifty  miles  an  hour,  my  agony  in  fear  for  the  fate  of  my  family 
can  better  be  imagined  than  described.  Not  until  I  reached  Des 
Monies  could  I  hear  of  their  safety. 

It  was  Sunday  morning  when  I  reached  home ;  but  few  were 
the  religious  services  in  central  Iowa  on  that  day.  Special  trains 
on  the  four  roads  brought  physicians,  nurses,  and  thousands  of  the 
curious,  to  crowd  the  blocked  streets  from  which  the  maimed,  the 
dying  and  the  dead  were  being  removed.  The  part  of  the  town 
destroyed  was  much  like  a  half  moon,  and  for  three  quarters  of  a 
mile  one  could  walk  on  the  debris.  A  hundred  photographic  views 
were  taken  of  the  ruins,  but  none  nor  all  could  depict  it  fully. 
Some  were  rescued  with  broken  bones ;  others  carried  into  the  air 
to  fall  lifeless.  Hospital  care  and  the  burying  of  the  dead  were 
the  first  services  —  an  occasion  of  touching  scenes  never  to  be 
pictured.  Great  was  the  gratitude  of  those  who  had  escaped,  and 
the  opening  of  a  brother's  heart  to  the  unfortunate,  homeless  and 
bereft  of  child  or  parents.  Next  was  the  proffered  aid  by  hund 
reds  of  strangers,  supplemented  by  telegrams  from  distant  friends 
advising  of  drafts  on  the  way,  and  words  of  cheer.  In  a  mention 
of  the  sufferers,  there  was  no  regard  to  property  or  station  —  some 
of  the  best  houses  utterly  destroyed,  and  their  treasures  scattered 
to  the  winds.  Several  of  the  well-known  and  substantial  citizens 
were  maimed,  but  the  deaths  were  mainly  the  young  and  of  those 
less  known  in  society.  I  make  exception  of  Deacon  William  Ford 
and  wife,  he  above  seventy  years,  remarking  but  a  few  days  before 
that  his  work  was  done  and  he  was  ready  to  go.  The  venerable 
couple  were  borne  into  the  air  while  watching  the  storm,  falling  no 
doubt  lifeless. 

The  front  of  the  house  of  our  venerable  ex-mayor,  L.  C.  Phelps, 


356  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS, 

was  entirely  removed,  with  the  rich  contents  of  the  rooms,  save  a 
portrait  of  the  absent  son,  Prof.  L.  A.  Phelps,  of  the  Chicago  Musi 
cal  College.  That  face,  unremoved  on  the  wall,  lent  a  smile  of 
hope  and  was  an  omen  of  cheer  brought  by  his  early  presence  and 
that  of  devoted  and  liberal  kindred. 

Twenty -nine  were  borne  from  the  Congregational  church  to 
Hazlewood  cemetery  in  one  day.  There  was  no  lack  of  the  best 
medical  aid  for  the  maimed ;  and  those  engaged  in  the  work  of 
restoration  began  making  shelters  for  the  homeless. 

The  Clarkson  Brothers,  of  the  State  Register,  gave  a  most  full 
and  graphic  account  of  the  disaster,  and,  like  most  of  the  press, 
sent  liberal  contributions  in  relief.  Governor  Sherman  made  a 
state  and  national  appeal.  Even  early  in  the  morning,  Hon.  Eze- 
kiel  Clark,  of  Iowa  City,  with  emotion  and  tears  said,  as  we  met, 
"Here  is  five  hundred  dollars".  This,  by  one  so  well  known,  stim 
ulated  bankers,  cities  and  companies  of  farmers  to  great  liberality. 
Nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  came  into  the  hands 
of  Mayor  Perry  and  the  committee.  This  is  a  larger  sum  than  all 
the  kindred  calamities  in  the  West  for  years  before  or  since  have 
received  in  charities  for  like  sufferers.  For  this  no  one  person  can 
take  the  credit — it  was  sweet  charity,  and  a  tribute  to  the  charac 
ter  of  the  town  with  a  temperance  history,  and  the  seat  of  Iowa 
College  attractive  to  elevated  citizenship.  There  was  no  scandal 
in  the  collection  or  disbursement  of  funds,  and  I  think  no  one  made 
a  charge  for  financial  agency  in  their  collection,  which  reflects  the 
highest  honor  on  the  part  of  the  local  committees.  Our  maimed 
and  the  dead  can  never  pass  out  of  the  thought  of  the  living,  nor 
can  the  spared  cease  to  wonder  that  so  beautiful  homes  could  so 
soon  rise  on  the  ruins.  It  is  a  great  fact  that  the  greatest  era  of 
the  city's  prosperity  dates  from  the  restoration  of  homes  and  col 
leges.  This  was  not  possible  without  the  courage  inspired,  not  by 
words  of  sympathy  alone,  but  by  the  great  charities,  never  to  be 
forgotten  by  the  recipients.  I  only  instance  the  well-built  and  fur 
nished  home  of  Professor  Buck,  which  was  in  ruins.  Scholars  and 
brother  professors  said  it  should  be  restored.  It  was.  The  orator 
at  commencement,  Doctor  Mears,  gave  cheer  in  his  oration,  which 
hastened  the  laying  of  the  granite  corner-stone  for  Alumni  Hall 
before  the  weeping  Jeremiahs  ended  their  grief. 

The  orator  asks:  "Am  I  wrong  in  saluting  Iowa  College  a  child, 
both  in  spirit  and  deed,  of  Pilgrim  and  Puritan  ?  Its  early  history 


EEMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  357 

will  rank  with  that  of  Harvard  and  of  Yale ;  and  as  history  repeats 
itself,  I  stand,  in  this  time  of  your  losses  and  your  griefs,  to  say 
that  in  the  remembrance  of  the  dead,  for  every  hand  that  built 
those  now  ruined  walls  there  will  be  two  to  rebuild,  and  for  every 
hard-earned  dollar  of  the  fathers  and  mothers  giving  it  foundation, 
the  children  of  such  parents,  will  sacrifice  two." 

Mr.  Thomas  H.  Dodge,  of  Worcester,  Mass.,  then  a  new, 
unknown  friend,  being  in  Chicago,  caught  the  spirit  of  that  city 
and  sent  a  message  from  his  own  burdened  heart.* 

It  becoming  evident  that  the  generous  contributions  could 
restore  the  homes  of  the  indigent,  and  that  the  maimed  would  be 
well  cared  for,  the  situation  of  the  college  made  a  moving  appeal 
for  liberal  aid  in  the  restoration.  There  were  many  reasons  related 
to  financial  and  personal  matters,  especially  prostration  by  nervous 
debility,  which  required  quiet  rest  for  me  at  home;  but  it  was  the 
time  for  action.  The  visit  to  the  board  of  trade  in  Chicago,  and 
encouragement  from  the  East,  caused  excuses  to  pale  before  imper 
ative  and  public  demands. 

THE    CHICAGO    VISIT. 

It  was  Hon.  John  V.  Farwell  who  showed  the  worth  of  a  great 
man  in  the  time  for  decisive  action.  The  week  previous  I  was  in 
his  company,  visiting  the  herds  at  his  Iowa  farm  near  Montezuma. 
We  had  a  severe  yet  laughable  experience  on  the  muddy  roads,  and 

*  The  following  was  his  telegraphed  message : 

LELAND  HOTEL,  CHICAGO,  June  23d,  1882. 
President  Magoun,  Iowa  College,  Grinnell,  Iowa  : 

Millions  of  tearful  eyes  and  sympathetic  hearts  will  be  drawn  toward  Grinnell 
by  your  heroic  action  on  the  morrow. 

Transmit  to  me  copy  of  the  Oration  as  soon  as  delivered,  and  I  will  have  an 
edition  printed  for  your  use,  that  the  words  thereof  may  go  forth  with  clarion  voice 
to  proclaim  the  great  truth  that  the  Model  City  of  the  West  and  Iowa  College  — 
ever  faithful  to  her  high  and  lofty  mission  —  are  not  destroyed,  but  still  live,  and 
will  rise  again,  though  bowed  in  grief  and  baptized  in  blood,  to  complete  their 
high  and  holy  destiny  in  promoting  learning,  religion  and  good  government  in  the 
great  West,  thereby  rendering  the  name  of  your  loved  city,  "Grinnell",  like  the 
sacred  soil  of  "Piedmont",  emblematic  of  sanctified  Christian  faith  and  undying 
courage,  in  the  Master's  work. 

THOS.  H.  DODGE. 

Then  followed  an  elegant  edition  of  the  historic  college  oration,  giving  a  wide 
knowledge  of  Iowa  College  and  an  eloquent  plea  for  a  restoration  both  in  promise 
and  prophecy. 


358  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS. 

I  detained  him  over  the  Sabbath  to  speak  to  the  great  congregation, 
which  won  his  friendship  for  the  college  and  the  town.  "Visit  me 
in  Chicago/'  said  he.  "I  will  cheerfully,"  was  my  answer,  but  the 
promise  was  fulfilled  under  a  dark  cloud.  Overlooking  his  build 
ing,  he  hailed  me  in  the  distance,  to  say,  "Come  on,  I  have 
heard  of  your  calamity.  What  can  I  do  besides  a  money  check." 
"Please  go  with  me  to  the  board  of  trade,"  was  my  answer. 
"I  will."  As  we  entered,  Mayor  Harrison,  and  Mr.  Dunham, 
president  of  the  board,  said,  "  You  have  struck  it.  Get  Mr.  Far- 
well  to  speak."  This  was  his  speech : 

"  Gentlemen,  our  neighboring  state  has  been  visited  by  one  of 
the  most  dreadful  storms  on  record.  I  was  at  the  beautiful  city 
of  Grinnell  last  week,  founded  by  the  gentleman  who  is  at  my  side. 
It  is  a  model  college  town.  It  must  not  suffer  by  our  neglect. 
This  is  no  time  for  speeches,  but  for  sympathy  which  reaches  the 
pocket.  I  must  go,  but  here  is  my  check  for  one  thousand  dollars, 
with  regrets  that  I  must  leave  to  keep  a  distant  appointment. 
Iowa  did  not  forget  Chicago  in  ashes,  and  we  must  cheerfully 
reciprocate." 

The  following  is  the  substance  of  the  Press  report : 

MAYOR    HARRISON 

said  that  on  the  floor  of  that  board  it  was  said  that  corn  was  king,  but  in  Iowa  the 
storm  had  ruled  it  over  corn.  They  could  not  succeed  there  if  Iowa  was  in  dis 
tress.  They  owed  it  to  themselves  to  respond  liberally  to  the  cry  that  came  to 
them  for  help.  They  had  the  reputation  of  being  enterprising  and  large  hearted, 
and  for  nothing  had  they  a  better  reputation  than  for  charitable  deeds.  By  the 
tornado  $500,000  had  been  destroyed,  forty  men,  women  and  children  had  been 
killed  and  100  were  dangerously  wounded.  He  had  been  requested  to  introduce  to 
them  a  gentleman  from  Grinnell.  It  was  true  Iowa  was  another  state,  but  the 
people  of  Chicago  recognized  no  state  line.  He  had  told  Mr.  Grinnell  that  the 
proper  way  to  get  the  thing  started  was  to  get  the  board  of  trade  started,  and 
then  there  was  no  danger  of  failure.  If  there  were  failure  let  it  be  charged  to  him. 
He  had  great  pleasure  in  introducing  to  them 

HON.    J.    B.    GRINNELL, 


of  Grinnell  city,  Iowa,  who  said : 

I  thank  the  president  of  the  board  of  trade  and  the  honorable  mayor  for 
their  kind  introduction  and  cheering  words.  The  words  of  sorrow  are  few.  I 
come  from  an  appalling  calamity  by  a  tornado  in  Iowa,  desolating  everything  in 
its  way  for  200  miles,  centering  its  fury  on  the  city  of  Grinnell,  a  place  of  3,000 
people,  300  miles  west  of  Chicago.  One  hundred  and  twenty  buildings  were 
swept  down  in  the  tempest,  many  of  them  homes  of  taste  and  comfort,  a  large 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  359 

portion  homesteads  and  representing  with  household  goods  the  entire  property  of 
the  owners  —  the  two  spacious  college  buildings  with  their  contents,  libraries, 
cabinets,  etc.,  representing  more  than  $100,000.  But  all  this  is  trivial  to  the  loss 
of  life  and  the  maiming  of  100  persons,  causing  our  city  to  be  a  hospital,  while 
many  brave  spirits  with  broken  limbs  and  bruised  bodies  hover  between  life  and 
death. 

I  will  not  stir  your  blood  with  harrowing  details.  My  voice  fails  me.  His 
tory  furnishes  no  such  desolation  of  a  city  in  an  hour,  causing  a  loss  of  from 
$400,000  to  $600,000.  My  plea  is  for  the  maimed,  the  homeless  and  the  poor,  beg 
gared  in  an  hour,  and  they  are  hundreds,  good  citizens,  and  even  brave  in  the 
midst  of  the  loss  of  property  and  of  their  loved  ones. 

I  come  to  brave  Chicago,  risen  from  the  ashes.  Your  desolation,  which  moved 
the  world,  was  not  like  ours.  There  were  treasures  in  your  safes ;  you  had  insur 
ance.  We  had  none.  Our  losses  by  death  and  maiming  were  greater  than  yours, 
and  I  do  not  forget  that  in  the  midst  of  your  sorrow  the  good  people  of  my  city 
never  slept  until  they  loaded  cars  for  the  relief  of  your  poor. 

Our  interests  are  blended  by  an  annual  trade  of  hundreds  of  millions,  and  we 
cannot  turn  a  furrow  that  is  not  to  your  commercial  interest.  The  Des  Moines 
State  Register  has  made  an  eloquent  appeal  to  the  nation,  and  Governor  Sherman 
has  made  a  touching  call  for  aid,  and  I  leave  all  to  your  generosity,  in  ministering 
to  the  unfortunate  who  are  dumb.  We  want  a  hundred  car-loads  of  lumber,  nails, 
hardware,  furniture  and  clothing  of  all  kinds,  and  one  hundred  thousand  dollars 
in  cash  at  once.  May  Heaven  move  generous  Chicago  to  aid  us  in  our  purpose  to 
rebuild  the  college,  and  never  rest  until  every  family  has  a  home  reared  on  the 
desolation.  I  trust  you  will  burden  the  railway  trains,  on  their  generous  offer 
to  bear  your  benefactions  free  to  the  wounded  and  unfortunate  poor,  and  my  beau 
tiful  city  and  all  on  the  track  of  the  tornado  will  take  heart  under  the  raven  wing 
of  desolation  and  horrors  I  cannot  relate. 

Great  as  was  our  indebtedness  to  other  cities,  like  Minneapolis 
and  Des  Moines,  the  $500  by  Hon.  Ezekiel  Clark,  of  Iowa  City, 
was  the  key-note  for  Iowa;  and  $1,000  by  Mr.  Farwell,  of  Chi 
cago,  became  an  inspiration.  Hon.  W.  J.  Pope,  grain-broker  and 
merchant,  was  most  active  and  efficient  in  the  lead  and  direction 
of  committees,  which  ensured  nearly  $20,000  from  Chicago  for  the 
sufferers.  Then  the  fire  insurance  companies,  with  risks  on  our 
colleges,  generously  waived  technicalities,  and  for  loss  of  the 
contents  of  the  colleges,  passed  to  us  several  thousand  dollars. 
They  could  have  shielded  themselves  under  court  decisions  that 
exempted  them  from  liability  when  buildings  take  fire  after 
falling.  Of  citizens,  H.  W.  Parker  alone  had  tornado  insurance. 

COLLEGE    RESTORATION. 

I  am  to  mention  friends.  If  he  gives  twice  who  gives  promptly 
then  by  the  record  Mr.  K.  E.  Sears,  of  Marshalltown,  a  college 
trustee  and  graduate,  who  gave  the  first  $1,000,  has  special  honor. 


360  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

He  was  then  engaged  in  a  large  manufacturing  business,  and  has 
since  been  in  honorable  association  with  gentlemen  in  securing  the 
Soldiers'  Home  at  Marshalltown,  and  now  with  capitalists  in  the 
control  of  large  coal  properties,  which  give  promise  of  competence. 

Hon.  William  E.  Dodge,  of  New  York,  and  Wendell  Phillips,  as 
already  said,  sent  words  of  cheer  by  wire  and  advised  of  drafts  on 
the  way.  On  their  warm  invitations  to  come  East,  I  started. 

Mr.  Ethan  Eogers,  of  Ocean  Grove,  New  Jersey,  I  found  at  his 
home,  and  he  gave  me  his  dividend  in  our  Grinnell  Bank,  for  about 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  most  cheerfully.  Mr.  Dodge, 
anticipating  my  visit,  had  left  word  at  his  office  that  I  should  fol 
low  him  and  spend  the  night  at  Irvington,  his  home  on  the  Hud 
son.  It  was  my  good  fortune  to  meet  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dodge  at 
the  station.  Their  welcome,  charming  society  and  elegant  home, 
beguiled  away  the  hours,  in  talking  of  our  great  calamity.  Some 
years  before  he  had  become  interested  in  the  college,  and  had 
passed  through  Iowa  to  admire  our  town.  Its  temperance  stand 
ard  was  of  especial  interest  to  him. 

Mr.  John  I.  Blair,  his  business  associate  and  my  friend,  I  men 
tioned  as  not  to  be  found.  "  He  must  be  seen/'  said  Mr.  Dodge, 
"and  please  excuse  me."  Soon  returning,  he  read  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Blair  which  was  truly  an  emotional,  grand  appeal.  "It  will  do 
our  friend  so  much  good,"  he  remarked,  "  to  give,  and  I  have  read 
this  to  Mrs.  Dodge,  and  we  have  prayed  that  you  may  be  spared  to 
hand  it  to  him,  and  I  have  asked  for  it  God's  blessing."  After 
evening  prayer,  he  said,  "  I  retire  early,  but  I  am  up  with  the  birds 
and  the  sun,  to  look  out  on  our  Hudson,  so  refreshing  to  me  in  its 
scenes  and  stories  of  an  early  day;  and  the  berries  you  must  join 
me  in  picking,  the  best,  I  think,  you  ever  saw." 

Long  were  the  night  watches,  and,  burdened  with  my  mission 
and  thought  of  home,  there  was  little  rest ;  yet  I  joined  Mr.  Dodge 
in  the  morning,  who  delighted  me  with  his  cheer.  No  word  had 
he  intimated  as  to  his  personal  gift,  and  at  the  table  he  bade  me 
look  up,  for  God  reigns.  On  a  removal  in  exchange  of  the  first 
plate,  I  had  occasion  to  credit  it,  with  a  smile,  in  recognition  of  a 
check  of  $5,000  for  the  college,  found  under  a  napkin.  Mrs. 
Dodge,  with  her  warm  motherly  heart,  said,  as  the  strawberries 
were  passed,  "Large  as  they  are,  they  may  relish  better  if  sweet 
ened  by  my  joining  Mr.  Dodge  with  a  thousand  dollars,  to  help  the 
worthy  young  girls."  Her  gift  was  twelve  hundred,  the  interest  of 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  361 

which  is  to  be  in  perpetuity  for  lady  students.  This  sum  she  sup 
plemented  later  by  another  thousand,  and,  still  later,  by  hundreds 
on  solicitation  of  Mrs.  Professor  Crow.  To  their  generosity  I  was 
dumb,  but  the  visit  resulted  in  lifting  a  cloud  which  hung  over  me, 
drear  and  dark  up  to  that  hour. 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  I  had  missed,  but  his  warm  welcome  to 
visit  his  church  and  speak  he  had  committed  to  my  long-time 
friend,  S.  V.  White,  with  whom  I  had  often  been  a  guest.  He  was 
a  former  lowan,  now  with  national  fame  as  a  stock-broker  and  a 
member  of  Congress.  On  Brooklyn  Heights  he  maintains  a  pri 
vate  observatory  and  telescope,  and  has  the  refined  tastes  of  a 
scholar,  savant  and  patron  of  education.  His  gift  of  $1,000,  with 
out  solicitation,  had  in  it  far  more  than  the  face  value  of  that  sum, 
for  it  gave  me  the  desired  entree  to  a  circle  of  millionaires.  I  was 
quite  safe  in  the  wake  of  his  example,  if  not  in  the  arena  of  bro 
kers  and  bankers,  whereof  our  friend  is  a  bold  leader. 

Mr.  Beecher,  if  singular  in  his  theological  evolution  ideas,  was 
peculiar  in  the  warmth  of  an  invitation  to  his  pulpit.  I  made  an 
address  in  the  evening  at  Plymouth  Church,  after  his  introduction 
before  noticed,  which  I  regarded  as  a  facetious  offset  to  my  intro 
duction  of  him  in  Iowa  with  his  subject  "Hard  Times",  of  which 
he  knew  nothing,  of  course,  personally,  yet  a  fit  theme  to  display 
his  imaginative  genius. 

The  following  was  the  address,  as  reported : 

The  recent  tornado  was  a  terrible  visitation.  It  was  heralded  by  a  few 
moments  of  rumbling,  sounding  not  unlike  the  moving  of  a  heavy  train  of  cars, 
with  immense  clouds  seen  forcing  their  way  for  an  hour  or  two,  to  leave  in  its  way 
desolation  and  death.  Its  course  was  from  the  north-west  in  a  track  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  wide,  and  swept  on  south-easterly  for  about  two  hundred  miles,  and  it  is 
believed  that  the  destruction,  will  cause  a  loss  of  about  two  million  dollars.  The 
greatest  destruction  was  in  my  immediate  vicinity.  Horses  and  cattle  were  taken 
up  and  borne  away  in  the  air.  When  it  struck  my  own  town  it  tore  down  one 
hundred  buildings.  There  were  one  hundred  persons  wounded,  their  limbs  broken 
and  so  bruised  and  mutillated  they  could  scarcely  be  recognized  by  their  friends. 
Thirty  of  my  neighbors,  my  dear  friends,  were  buried  in  a  single  day,  and  when  I 
left  my  home  it  seemed  as  though  I  left  a  hospital,  so  many  were  wounded.  All 
our  homes  are  crowded,  for  three  hundred  persons  were  left  homeless,  but  they  had 
kind  neighbors  and  friends  who  did  all  in  their  power  for  their  immediate  comfort. 
But  such  horror!  such  desolation!  Oh,  I  have  no  heart  to  speak  of  it!  Men  and 
women  of  advanced  years  were  whirled  through  the  air  for  one  hundred  feet  or 
more  and  dropped  dead.  The  air  was  filled  with  electricity,  and  the  very  watch 
springs  were  broken  by  the  force  of  the  electric  fluid.  The  colleges,  the  pride  of 
my  heart,  where  were  gathered  three  hundred  and  fifty  brave  boys  and  beautiful 
girls,  were  swept  down.  Forty  persons  were  killed,  not  to  mention  those  who  may 


362  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

have  gone  to  their  long  rest  in  my  absence.  This  is  a  matter  of  grave  and  serious 
concern  to  me,  and  I  never  expect  to  rest  until  our  poor  are  housed,  until  the 
maimed  are  provided  for,  and  until  those  colleges  are  rebuilt.  I  cannot  do  it.  We 
cannot  do  it.  God  does  not  ask  us  to  do  it.  We  sent  out  our  appeal,  and  before  I 
left  home  I  signed  over  seventy  responsive  checks  and  drafts.  The  employes  of 
the  New  York  Herald  sent  a  bountiful  sum,  and  many  publishers  of  other  papers. 

Mr.  Beecher.  —  Tell  about  your  own  town.  There  has  not  been  any  liquor  sold 
there  for  twenty-eight  years. 

Mr.  Grinnell.  —  I  don't  deny  that  I  am  the  man  Horace  Greeley  told  to  go 
West.  I  took  up  a  large  tract  of  land ;  but  not  from  mercenary  motives.  My  first 
business  was  to  lay  out  a  town  and  I  determined  that  no  intoxicating  liquors 
should  be  sold  there,  and  up  to  this  time  I  may  say  that  not  one  drop  of  ardent 
spirits  has  ever  been  sold  upon  that  tract  of  land.  I  began  three  miles  away  from 
any  house,  and  three  years  ago  when  we  had  our  quarter  centennial  celebration, 
we  made  the  declaration  that  God  had  been  wonderfully  with  us.  No  fire  had 
desolated  a  human  habitation,  no  man  had  found  his  way  to  the  poor  house,  not 
one  had  gone  to  the  jail,  and  not  one  to  the  state  prison.  [Applause].  And  hap 
pening  to  be  mayor  of  the  city  for  the  last  two  years,  I  will  say  there  was  only  one 
person  brought  before  me  and  fined  for  drunkenness,  and  during  the  campaign 
which  has  just  closed  we  were  made  a  special  point  of  attack  by  the  enemies  of 
temperance.  Money  was  sent  there  and  transient  persons  who  had  no  visible 
means  of  support,  but  they  could  not  demoralize  our  people. 

Mr.  Beecher.  —  Do  not  forget  the  Chinese. 

Mr.  Grinnell.  —  No,  we  received  a  draft  for  three  hundred  dollars  from  China 
men  for  the  poor  sufferers  in  Grinnell.  [Loud  applause.]  Mr.  Beecher  shouted, 
"  Put  them  out.  What  business  have  the  almond-eyed  heathens  here  giving  their 
money  in  charity?"  [Cheers.]  It  is  a  great  work  we  have  undertaken,  but  I 
believe  that  beautiful  city  will,  with  God's  blessing,  be  rebuilt.  Those  who  have 
been  temperate,  honest  and  frugal,  they  shall  be  cared  for.  Hundreds  of  persons 
escaped  by  going  into  their  cellars,  and  when  the  college  fell  it  engulfed  two  boys 
and  one  beautiful  girl,  who  were  preparing  for  work.  Let  me  close  by  saying  that 
my  great  friend  here  (Mr.  Beecher)  and  the  nationjs  church  shall  be  allied  with 
the  resurrection  of  that  place.  And  let  it  be  known  on  earth  and  in  Heaven  that 
Plymouth  Church  and  its  people  have  not  forgotten  those  whom  storms  have 
desolated.  [Loud  applause.] 

The  meeting  was  a  success.  It  advertised  the  calamity  and  my 
mission,  apart  from  a  generous  collection  taken  and  the  $1,000  by 
Mr.  White,  supplemented  by  other  sums  from  Mr.  Moses  S.  Beach, 
William  Marshall,  General  Duryea,  and  others. 

RAILWAY    MAGNATES. 

Fortunately  an  early  connection  with  the  Chicago  and  Eock 
Island  Road,  and  later  with  local  enterprises,  gave  me  an  easy 
access  to  friends.  While  in  Chicago  I  solicited  through  Superin 
tendent  Riddle,  as  our  college  is  built  on  his  line  of  road,  five  or 
ten  thousand  dollars  in  freighting.  He  referred  me  to  Mr.  David 
Dows,  of  New  York,  chairman  of  the  board,  whom  I  had  known 


REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY-  YEARS.  363 

many  years,  having  sent  my  clips  of  wool  from  Iowa  to  his  com 
mission  house.  By  Mr.  Dows  I  was  received  with  great  cordiality, 
and  he  said  — 

"  I  favor  your  request,  and  I  will  see  the  committee,  but  just 
let  me  give  you  a  thousand  dollars,  as  I  do  not  choose  to  ask  the 
company  to  do  what  I  will  not  aid  personally.7' 

The  Eock  Island  Company's  donation  was  $5,000,  afterward 
increased  to  $6,000,  besides  freighting  large  donations  without 
charge. 

I  next  called  on  President  C.  P.  Huntington,  of  the  California 
and  Central  Railroads.  It  was  not  possible  to  gain  an  audience  at 
the  rooms  in  the  Mills  Building  against  the  denials  and  rebuffs  of 
the  door-keeper,  yet  a  promise  that  sometime  Mr.  Huntington 
should  see  my  card.  While  the  door  was  ajar,  on  the  retiring  of 
some  official,  I  continued  the  plea  with  some  persistency  that  my 
presence  should  be  known  there. 

"I  know  that  voice,"  called  out  Mr.  Huntington.  "Let  him 
in  —  certainly.  They  say  men  have  their  prices,  but  I  never  heard 
that  you  had  one,"  referring,  I  presume,  to  scandals  in  Washington, 
and  the  railway  lobby.  "What  a  wicked  set  you  must  be  out  in 
Grinnell,  to  need  such  a  storm  ! " 

Of  course  I  could  only  reply  that  it  was  from  the  West,  and  if 
there  was  anything  in  desert,  California  would  have  a  visit. 
"Nothing  in  it,  nor  true  that  lightning  don't  strike  twice  in  one 
place  —  I  know  it  does,"  said  Mr,  Huntington.  "You  have  a 
beautiful  city,  seen  as  I  have  been  through  Iowa,  and  had  I  known 
who  it  was  at  the  door,  my  messenger  would  not  have  detained 
you.  Let  me  give  you  some  help  in  building  the  College"  —  and 
his  name  and  check  were  for  $1,000,  with  an  apology,  saying 
that  I  could  call  again. 

Gen.  G.  M.  Dodge,  as  an  lowan  of  high  fame,  with  character 
istic  promptness  made  his  check  foi  $1,000.  Hon.  Russell  Sage, 
well-known,  one  of  the  largest  operators  in  New  York,  who  has 
railway  interests  in  Iowa,  followed  General  Dodge  with  $1,000. 
My  business  relations  with  him  had  been  large  and  pleasant. 

I  was  not  fortunate  in  finding  others  known  to  me  in  the  city, 
and  proceeded  to  Worcester,  Mass.,  by  invitation  of  Messrs.  Wash- 
burn  &  Moen.  To  the  country  they  are  known  as  the  most 
extensive  manufacturers  of  steel  wire  in  the  world.  They  gave 
$1,000  for  the  town,  and  $1,000  for  the  college.  Their  interest 


364  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

was  further  shown  in  handing  me  an  introductory  letter  to  Mr. 
J.  F.  Slater,  of  Norwich,  Conn.,  whose  princely  gift  of  $1,000,000 
for  the  education  of  the  poor  in  the  South  had  just  been  made 
public. 

I  esteem  it  a  good  fortune  to  have  conversed  with  so  calm  and 
sympathetic  a  stranger.  His  philosophy  of  giving  was  original. 
"Let  me  put  down  $  1,000  —  if  I  were  to  make  the  sum  larger  it 
might  keep  back  others  who  should  have  a  share  in  restoration  for 
their  own  good,  apart  from  aid  to  the  College."  Rising,  he  said, 
"I  have  two  friends  in  the  library  —  please  let  me  call  them  — 
you  want  the  blessing  to  go  round."  They  were  Mr.  Moses  H. 
Pierce  and  Henry  B.  Norton,  who  without  'solicitation  added  $500 
to  the  gift  of  Mr.  Slater,  he  urging  me  to  partake  of  his  hospitality 
then  or  any  time. 

I  omitted  to  say  that  Deacon  David  Whitcomb,  a  noble  soul  of 
Worcester,  had,  on  hearing  of  the  tornado,  sent  on  $1,000,  and 
later  gave  $600,  to  aid  ladies  who  had  suffered  by  the  storm. 

From  Boston,  Deacon  Farnsworth,  of  Park  Street  church,  and 
Mr.  Samuel  Johnson,  of  the  Old  South,  had  forwarded  a  handsome 
sum,  as  did  Mr.  John  N.  Dennison,  increasing  our  obligation  to 
a  noble  philanthropist.  Thomas  Nickerson  gave  me  $500,  also 
Mr.  H.  H.  Hunnewell,  in  continuation  of  personal  friendship  for 
years. 

Hon.  Frederick  Billings,  of  Vermont,  I  met  in  New  York. 
I  am  reminded  of  a  check  held  in  his  hand,  being  a  part  of  the 
$100,000  given  for  the  finest  library  building  in  the  country  to 
the  University  of  Vermont,  at  Burlington.  I  could  not  ask  his 
aid  in  the  presence  of  such  benefactions,  yet  he  made  me  a  check 
for  $500  without  solicitation,  just  like  the  nobleman  he  was. 

Hiram  Sibley,  of  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  made  me  welcome.  He  was 
one  of  the  largest  farmers  of  Illinois,  and  the  most  noted  producer 
of  garden  seeds  in  the  world.  A  great  patron  of  Cornell  Univers 
ity,  he  was  thought  to  be  too  liberalistic  to  have  sympathy  for  an 
orthodox  college.  But  he  has  been  a  free  giver,  and  I  brought 
home  from  his  warehouse  seeds  to  the  value  of  $1,000,  the  pro 
ceeds  of  which  were  for  restoring  the  college  museum. 

I  returned  to  Chicago  with  good  fortune  in  meeting  with  Hon. 
John  I.  Blair,  of  Blairstown,  N.  J.  It  was  on  Sunday  and  after 
church  that  I  heard  his  name,  for  it  had  become  his  habit  in  order 
to  escape  observation  to  place  his  name  on  the  hotel  register  on 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  365 

departure  and  not  on  arrival.  Mr.  Blair,  while  over  eighty  years 
of  age,  bears  the  marks  of  but  sixty,  such  is  his  agility  in  the  busi 
ness  activities  of  a  many-times  millionaire. 

"That  tornado  of  yours  is  surely  dreadful,"  he  remarked.  "I 
received  Mr.  Dodge's  letter ;  he  has  been  my  business  partner  for 
thirty  years,  and  the  world  has  never  known  a  warmer  heart  and 
such  a  giver !  I  do  well  to  keep  half  way  up  to  him,  yet  of  late 
have  had  Blairstown  Seminary,  Princeton  and  Lafayette  Colleges, 
besides  other  things  I  dare  not  name,  which  make  me  out  or  in 
near  a  million  of  dollars ;  still  I  must  follow  Mr.  Dodge  if  it  is  a 
good  way  off.  But  what  did  he  do  ? "  I  answered,  "  Mr.  Dodge 
had  before  given  $5,000  to  the  college,  and  for  our  rebuilding 
gave  another  $5,000,  to  which  Mrs.  Dodge  added  $1200  for  the 
girls."  "Just  like  them  —  they  are  never  so  happy  as  when  mak 
ing  checks  in  charity ;  and  he  will  perhaps  expect  me  to  equal  his 
sum  in  rebuilding."  Just  then  there  was  a  caller,  and,  on  learning 
that  Senator  William  B.  Allison  was  in  the  house,  he  said,  "  Bring 
him  in".  I  knew  that  Mr.  Blair  thought  as  highly  of  Mr.  Allison, 
perhaps,  as  of  any  man  living.  It  thus  became  my  policy  to  seek 
his  good  offices  with  Mr.  Blair.  The  senator  said,  "Let  me  put 
down  $500  before  I  ask  him  for  $50,000,  which  I  hope  he  may 
give,  having  so  large  an  interest  in  Iowa".  Mr.  Allison  met  a 
hearty  greeting  by  his  old  friend,  who  remarked,  "I  have  had  no 
breakfast,  and  let  us  go  to  dinner  and  then  talk  up  tornadoes  with 
Grinnell".  Senator  Allison  gently  interposed,  "Let  us  talk  calam 
ity,  Mr.  Blair,  before  dinner,  for  when  you  get  in  sight  you  will  be 
set  upon,  you  know  well,  by  a  crowd." 

"I  think  if  I  follow  Dodge  you  will  call  it  good  sauce  for 
dinner." 

"Please  don't  think  of  less  than  $50,000  for  that  great 
calamity ! " 

"  You  will  beggar  me  —  where's  the  book  ?  I  must  have  some 
dinner." 

"But,"  said  the  senator,  "you  have  twenty  times  my  interest 
in  Iowa." 

"Well,  $10,000." 

"Don't  say  less  than  $25,000,  and  enjoy  a  dinner  after  one 
good  Sunday  deed,  as  you  haven't  been  to  church." 

The  book  is  taken  and  $15,000  was  put  down,  then  a  hurried 
retreat  to  the  dinner  table.  I  thought  the  old  gentleman  gave  a 


366  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

sigh  of  relief  on  escape  from  appeals,  yet  lie  cheerfully  proposed  to 
keep  us  in  mind  and  interest  friends  in  the  college.  This  generous 
gift  without  condition  was  supplemented  by  a  donation  of  slate  for 
the  covering  of  two  of  the  colleges ;  then,  at  my  request,  he  sat  for 
a  bust  in  plaster,  to  be  presented  to  the  college,  and  also  gave  an 
oil  portrait,  life-like,  which  smiles  a  welcome  on  entering  Goodnow 
Library  Hall.  Later  we  met  by  appointment  in  New  York,  mak 
ing  a  call  on  Mr.  Jay  Gould,  Mrs.  Gould's  father  having  been  his 
early  friend,  and  he  recalling  her  as  a  child.  Mr.  Blair  said 
blandly,  "  Here  is  a  plea  which  has  interested  me  in  calling  with 
Mr.  Grinnell.  Meantime,  will  you  say  to  Mrs.  Gould,  <It  would 
please  an  old  man  to  see  the  daughter  of  my  old  friend,  for  I  knew 
Mrs.  Gould  before  you  did,  when  a  child '  ? "  "  Certainly,  Mr. 
Blair,"  and  Mrs.  Gould  came  in,  and  there  was  mutual  entertain 
ment  in  reminiscences  of  early  days.  Pleasantly  Mr.  Gould  had 
replied,  "  I  shall  be  happy  to  aid  the  college  in  proportion  to  your 
Iowa  interests  and  liberal  gift,  Mr.  Blair".  He  made  it  a  thou 
sand,  thanking  us  for  the  call  with  the  manner  of  a  true  gentle 
man.  It  was  a  very  quiet  scene — no  satins,  diamonds,  show  or 
formality,  more  than  in  the  library  and  parlor  of  the  plainest 
people. 

"Vanderbilt  we  must  see  to-night,"  said  Mr.  Blair.  We  called, 
to  learn  that  the  indoors  were  closed  and  Mr.  Vanderbilt  had 
retired.  Thereupon  a  note  was  left  with  a  request  for  an  audi 
ence  in  the  morning.  This  meeting  was  frustrated  by  a  telegram 
received,  calling  for  Mr.  Blair's  early  departure  from  the  city,  and 
1  made  the  venture  alone.  My  reception  by  the  messenger  was  a 
cool  one,  for  Mr.  Vanderbilt  had  been  trying  to  get  ready  to  leave 
town.  "  My  orders  are  to  admit  no  one  less  than  the  Almighty." 
"Well,"  said  I,  "that  bars  me,  but  can  you  take  my  name  and 
cause  ?  "  "  No,  I  wish  I  could."  Not  to  be  baffled,  I  called  upon 
an  old  friend,  Mr.  J.  P.  Chambers,  an  officer  of  high  rank  in  the 
Central  Road,  who  cheerfully  proposed  to  get  my  subscription 
book  under  Mr.  Vanderbilt's  eye,  and  sent  it  to  the  house  by  the 
hands  of  a  messenger.  After  two  days  I  called  to  learn  the  issue, 
and  the  word  came  back,  "  No  one  has  seen  the  book,  but  his  clerk 
was  to  make  a  good  search  ".  Then  another  call  and  no  discovery, 
and  the  loss  being  a  serious  one  it  made  by  rumor  no  small  storm 
in  the  house.  At  last  Mrs.  Vanderbilt  came  out  with  it,  being  the 
custodian  of  requests,  which  I  judge  were  placed  where  most  con- 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOBTT   YEARS.  367 

venient  to  be  forgotten.  On  the  door-keeper  bringing  out  the 
found  book-treasure,  sent  by  Mr.  Chambers,  I  was  curious  to  see 
the  result  in  dollars  of  this  exciting  episode.  Nil. 

Mr.  Chauncey  M.  Depew's  name,  the  counselor  of  Mr.  Vander- 
bilt,  struck  my  eye,  and  I  resolved  to  seek  cheer  by  a  call  on  my 
genial  friend.  If  failing  to  get  money,  the  loss  of  my  book  was  at 
least  suggestive,  and  I  asked  Mr.  Depew  "  if  the  case  of  the  circuit 
rider  out  West  was  not  much  like  mine."  "Tell  it,  and  I'll  see." 
"The  preacher  informed  his  Sunday  congregation  that  it  was  nec 
essary  that  the  steward  should  pass  the  hat  for  a  collection  —  chil 
dren  out  of  shoes,  and  no  oats  for  his  horse.  It  was  observed  that 
in  the  circuit  of  the  hat  there  was  not  a  cent  dropped  in.  Where 
upon,  the  minister  played  his  part  well,  in  reproof  and  in  mitiga 
tion  partially,  for  his  disappointment.  The  hat  was  turned  down 
with  gravity  and  the  sarcastic  remark,  '  Bless  the  Lord,  brethren,  I 
got  my  hat  back  from  the  congregation  V  Depew  laughed  and  said, 
"  That  isn't  your  case  ".  "  Yes,  I  passed  the  book,  waited  three 
days,  no  draft  and  no  name."  Then  he  said,  "That  story  of  yours 
I'll  tell  to  Vanderbilt  to-day ".  I  am  confident  he  did  tell  it,  with 
ornamentation,  for  a  telegram  came  from  the  office  before  I  reached 
Worcester,  asking  me  to  call  as  I  came  back.  I  did  call,  and  a  per 
sonal  regret  had  been  left  at  not  seeing  me,  and  there  was  also  a 
draft  of  $1,000. 

In  Boston,  Mr.  Blair  with  a  spare  hour  called  with  me  upon 
Mr.  Frederic  L.  Ames  (son  of  Oliver  Ames,  deceased),  just  mov 
ing  into  a  new  house  on  Commonwealth  Avenue.  The  affluence  of 
the  owner  seemed  in  keeping  with  artistic  decoration,  spacious 
halls,  alcoves,  with  orchestra,  and  all  in  the  most  tasteful  devices. 
Mr.  Blair  hinted  to  his  business  friend  that  the  music  from  those 
orchestra  seats  would  not  be  in  time  for  him,  but  as  the  house 
couldn't  be  taken  in  in  one  day,  he  would  call  again.  Meeting 
Mrs.  Ames,  with  her  apologies  for  the  confusion,  having  had  but  a 
week  to  settle,  Mr.  Blair  said,  " Excusable,  madam  —  certainly;  I 
assume  you  have  not  been  over  the  house  yet,  for  I  am  a  fair  pedes 
trian  and  weary  enough  to  halt".  Mr.  Ames  gave  $1,000  freely, 
without  solicitation,  a  gift  which  I  associate  with  the  wit  of  Mr. 
Blair,  and  a  view  of  one  of  the  elegant  American  abodes  which 
an  Ames  can  adorn. 

Hon.  S.  B.  Chittenden,  of  Brooklyn,  gave  a  few  hundreds,  a 
repetition  of  like  sums.  He  is  a  great  patron  of  Yale.  Other 


368  REMINISCENCES   OF  FOBTY   YEAES. 

names  I  may  not  give,  making  an  aggregate  of  over  $40,000, 
three  fourths  of  which  was  "from  the  world",  at  least  outside 
of  our  denomination.  The  smaller,  constant  givers  I  avoided, 
and  certainly  "burnt  over"  no  ground  that  promised  a  harvest  to 
another  in  the  churches  or  by  personal  appeal.  Scowls  did  not 
meet  me — smiles  greeted  me,  while  I  helped  the  blood  circulation 
of  men — not  the  "worms  of  the  dust".  That  phrase  I  strike  out 
with  pleasure  and  expurgate  "total"  from  the  old  doctrine  of  total 
depravity.  I  only  did  my  duty,  and  am  grateful  for  a  view  of  a 
more  elevated  plane  of  life,  and  have  greater  detestation  of  a 
vicious  custom  and  common  habit  in  ascribing  bad  motives  to 
givers  in  great  acts  of  charity.  Against  this  low  view,  hundreds 
and  thousands  to  distant  strangers  and  the  poor  testify.  The 
world  has  its  more  quiet  givers,  some  of  whose  names  I  am  not  at 
liberty  to  mention.  They  were  pictured  by  Job :  "  when  the  ear 
heard,  then  it  blessed  me,  and  when  the  eye  saw  me,  it  gave  wit 
ness  to  me  "  ;  and  for  us  a  deliverance  came  to  the  poor  that  cried, 
and  the  fatherless  who  by  the  desolations  of  the  storm  had  none  to 
help  them. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Historical  Address  at  New  Haven,  Vt.,  1887 —  Distinguished  Ver- 
monters  —  Iowa  Vermont  and  New  England  Associations  — 
Eulogy  on  Senator  Solomon  Foote  —  Shorter  Catechism. 

THE    OLD    HOME    WELCOME    IN    NEW    HAVEN,    VT. 

IT  was  in  compliment  to  our  pioneer  family.  As  a  boy  I  was 
hardly  remembered;  as  a  man,  appreciated  ever  far  above  my 
deserts  for  any  personality  or  the  public  service  to  which  distance 
might  lend  enchantment.  There  was  for  me  an  inspiration  and 
deep  emotion  for  which  written  words  were  but  a  mockery  of  the 
occasion.  The  welcome  was  given  in  the  great  church,  the  posts 
and  beams  of  which  were  drawn  by  my  ancestor  in  the  year  when 
resting  the  soil  as  before  described.  On  the  front  row  of  seats  sat 
a  score  of  veterans  who  knew  my  father,  and  their  children  of  the 
third  generation  had  smiles  of  welcome  and  cheers  for  the  guest 
visiting  after  fifty  years'  absence. 

From  the  pamphlet  of  proceedings,  notes  of  eminent  Vermont- 
ers  and  pioneering  incidents  are  elsewhere  given.  Such  a  recep 
tion  brought  more  than  recompense  for  the  trials  of  youth  and  a 
struggle,  away  from  home,  to  honor  our  name.  It  occurred  Sept. 
5th,  1887,  in  accordance  with  an  invitation  from  citizens  of  New 
Haven,  Vt.,  saying,  "While  you  are  East  and  setting  up  a  memorial 
for  ancestors  in  New  Haven,  your  birthplace,  permit  us  to  request 
that  you  will  consent  to  make  an  address  upon  the  history  of  your 
town,  and  give  us  such  information  as  you  may  possess  with  regard 
to  those  who  have  gone  out  of  it".  Hon.  E.  A.  Doud  presided; 
and  after  my  address  (afterward  printed,  by  request  of  the  audi 
ence,  and  to  this  volume  supplying  memoranda  used  in  other 
chapters),  speeches  were  made  by  a  former  pupil  of  mine,  now 
Hon.  L.  D.  Eldridge,  of  Middlebury;  my  kinsman,  Prof.  A.  P. 
Grinnell,  M.  D.,  of  the  Vermont  University ;  Rev.  W.  B.  Hogue ; 
Judge  William  S.  Wright;  Hon.  Luman  Pease,  of  Illinois;  and 


370  EEMINISCENCES   OF^  FORTY   YEARS. 

George  W.  Brown,  Esq.,  of  Boston,  the  only  surviving  son  of  the 
veterans  of  Lexington  —  his  father,  Deacon  Solomon  Brown,  a 
merchant,  having  moved  to  New  Haven,  probably  soon  after  the 
Revolution.  He  it  was  who,  it  was  abundantly  proved,  fired  the 
first  shot  of  the  Revolution,  and  the  very  musket  is  preserved  by  a 
grandson  in  the  old  New  Haven  home. 

VERMONTERS. 

It  was  no  uncommon  occurrence  for  the  writer  of  these  pages 
to  be  rallied  on  his  enthusiastic  praise  of  Vermonters.  The  answer 
would  be,  why  not  ?  There  is  no  fiction  in  the  distinguished  part 
which  the  state  has  borne,  never  too  highly  colored,  and  there  leaps 
to  the  tongue  the  old  quotation,  "  Breathes  there  a  man  with  soul 
so  dead  ",  etc.  A.  eulogist  of  the  fortunate  dwellers  in  the  Switz 
erland  of  America  has  said:  "There  has  been  to  me  a  transmis 
sion  of  blood  in  living  currents  under  the  laws  of  heredity.  The 
spirit  of  Vermont  ancestry  is  mine  without  cultivation.  In  youth 
I  was  a  listener  to  the  stories  of  the  Revolution  and  of  hated 
Tories  fleeing  to  Canada,  and  of  their  children  across  the  line, 
expert  smugglers.  The  state  craft  of  New  Hampshire  and  the 
cupidity  of  New  Yorkers,  with  a  design  to  absorb  and  divide  the 
state,  stirred  the  blood  of  my  ancestors,  and  there  was  fire  in  the 
spirit  of  my  father,  a  volunteer  with  a  musket,  making  a  march  of 
forty-five  miles  in  a  day  to  take  part  in  the  battle  of  Plattsburg." 
This  generation  is  rich  in  such  an  inheritance,  and  joins  in  voice 
with  a  challenge  in  Whittier's  verse,  read  in  the  shadow  of  the 
statue  of  Ethan  Allen : 

"  Come  York  or  come  Hampshire,  come  traitors  and  knaves, 
If  you  rule  o'er  our  land  ye  shall  rule  o'er  our  graves ; 
Our  vow  is  recorded,  our  banner  unfurled, 
In  the  name  of  Vermont,  we  defy  the  world!  " 

I  have  often  asked,  what  town  of  twelve  hundred  rural  inhabit 
ants,  has  produced  so  many  eminent  persons  as  New  Haven,  Vt.  ? 
I  have  found  no  answer  and  support  my  claim  with  specifications. 

New  England  has  furnished  but  one  citizen  knighted  by  a  Brit 
ish  sovereign,  and  that  is  the  late  president  of  the  Atlantic  Cable 
Company,  who  endowed  the  Mills  School,  the  honored  Sir  Curtis 
Lampson,  of  London,  a  native  of  New  Haven,  Vt. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEAKS.  371 

The  distinguished  enterprise  in  building  more  miles  of  railway 
than  any  American,  is  reserved  for  a  late  citizen  of  New  Haven, 
Hon.  R.  B.  Langdon,  of  Minneapolis. 

That  man  in  Chicago,  who  has  by  his  steam  elevator  tolled  and 
stored  more  grain  for  twenty  years  than  all  the  consumption  of 
Vermont  for  that  period,  is  Hiram  Wheeler,  proud  of  his  New 
Haven  birth. 

For  years,  and  not  long  ago,  another  New  Haven  boy  annually 
sold  groceries,  not  intoxicants,  equal  to  the  consumption  of  the 
entire  population  of  Vermont,  Win.  M.  Hoyt,  of  Chicago,  whose 
wife  honors  her  Phelps  and  Langdon  blood. 

That  corporate  wonder  of  the  West,  the  North- Western  Insur 
ance  Company,  has  a  bank  president  for  its  treasurer,  who  survived 
the  New  Haven  flood,  and  is  one  of  her  fortunate  sons  who  daily 
turns  his  key  on  over  twenty  millions  of  cash  and  securities,  equal 
to  the  banking  capital  and  saving  deposits  of  the  State  of  Vermont 
—  Charles  D.  Nash,  of  Milwaukee. 

Another  favorite  son,  philanthropist,  savant  and  gentleman,  the 
companion  around  the  world  of  President  Fillmore,  the  only  New 
Haven  boy  presented  to  the  Pope  at  Rome,  and  waiving  the  saluta 
tion  by  a  kiss  of  the  toe  of  his  Holiness  —  was  Elam  R.  Jewett,  of 
Buffalo. 

Then  there  are  clergymen,  natives  of  the  same  town,  whose 
memories  are  yet  fragrant :  Doctors  Miles  P.  Squire,  Milo  J. 
Hickok,  the  brothers  Dr.  Ovah  P.  and  Otto  S.  Hoyt,  Smith,  Hall, 
and  others,  to  which  may  be  added  a  long  list  of  teachers  of  just 
distinction  and  fame,  without  a  mention  of  bankers  and  legislators. 

The  residents  of  Grinnell,  born  in  my  native  town,  pushed 
out  like  eaglets  from  the  crowded  nest,  are  prominent  citizens 
whom  I  may  recall  in  every  profession.  Herrick,  of  the  clerical, 
erect  at  eighty  years ;  his  son,  an  ex-mayor,  merchant,  leading  the 
choir ;  and  Brainerd,  retired  from  the  pulpit,  a  brother  of  a  Ver 
mont  U.  S.  Senator ;  Phelps,  an  ex-mayor,  one  of  his  sons  a  lawyer, 
in  the  choir,  and  another  a  distinguished  musician  in  Chicago; 
Whitcomb,  the  eldest  deacon,  whose  family  are  honored  in  Chicago, 
Texas  and  Montana  ;  Marsh,  a  relative  of  the  venerable  diplomat, 
proud  of  a  son  in  European-Turkey,  educator  and  minister ;  Kellogg, 
architect  and  builder,  kin  of  a  late  eminent  judge ;  Blakely,  an  edu 
cated  shepherd  farmer  j  Preston,  civil  engineer,  and  general  in  the 
army;  Hatch,  ex-mayor  and  merchant;  with  others  alike  worthy 


372  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

representatives  of  our  old  home,  rounding  a  circle  of  virtue  and 
intelligence,  including  my  family  physician,  Dr.  E.  W.  Clark ;  the 
pastor  of  the  church,  Rev.  H.  M.  Tenney ;  and  Geo.  A.  Gates,  pres 
ident  of  Iowa  College.  Vermont  had  no  seaport,  and,  if  not  the 
nurse  of  sailors,  it  had  a  loyal  military  school  at  Norwich,  where 
so  many  began  their  career  of  distinction  in  education  for  the  army, 
yet  not  more  brave  than  thousands  who  fell  dead  from  their  Mor 
gan  steeds,  or  came  home  with  torn  flags  and  mutilated  limbs. 
General  Phelps,  the  emancipator,  is  not  to  be  forgotten.  Generals 
Richardson,  Moore,  Ransom,  Stannard,  Smith,  Seymour,  Hawkins, 
Babcock,  with  General  L.  A.  Grant,  now  the  popular  assistant-sec 
retary  of  war  —  these  are  but  a  few  of  the  distinguished  whose 
names  are  found  in  the  military  archives  of  Vermont. 

In  the  railway  service  there  are  most  marked  examples  of  gen 
ius  and  enterprise.  General  G.  M.  Dodge,  railway  magnate  of 
national  military  fame,  gained  his  education  at  Norwich,  Vt. 
Charles  Paine,  of  the  Lake  Shore,  Frederick  Billings,  of  the  North 
ern  Pacific,  Wm.  B.  Strong,  of  the  Santa  Fe,  J.  C.  Gault,  of  the 
Chicago  and  St.  Paul,  Hitchcock  and  Hammond,  of  the  C.,  B.  &  Q., 
C.  J.  Ives  of  the  Burlington,  Johnson,  Dunlap  and  the  Wheelers, 
of  the  North- Western,  H.  F.  Royce,  of  the  Rock  Island,  with 
Nutt,  Baxter,  Crittenden  and  R.  B.  Langdon,  form  a  group  in  chal 
lenge  for  rivals  to  the  boy-coasters,  sleigh-riders  and  mountain  road 
builders  of  Vermont  to-day,  who,  like  them,  may  drift  into  railway 
service. 

The  press,  too,  is, honored  by  the  sons  of  Vermont,  such  as  our 
Dunham,  ;and  Ex-Postmaster  General  Hatton,  of  the  Hawkey e;  and 
Richardson,  as  well  as  George  Jones,  of  the  N.  Y.  Times  ;  Story,  of 
the  Chicago  Times ;  Eastman  and  Saxe,  poet  editors,  and  Walter 
Colton,  the  pioneer  of  the  California  press. 

Publicists  and  authors  were  George  Bush,  T.  M.  Post,  W.  F. 
Shedd,  0.  A.  Bronson  and  Hooker.  In  politics,  two  of  the  parlia 
mentary  leaders  of  a  century,  Stephen  A.  Douglas  and  Thaddeus 
Stevens,  sprang  from  our  evergreen  home,  the  paradise  of  school 
masters. 

Early  the  missionary  spirit  found  a  welcome  in  Vermont,  to 
be  cultivated  and  heroically  illustrated  in  the  persons  of  Green, 
Fiske,  Munger,  Levi  Parsons  and  Brigham.  I  have  yet  to  travel 
or  listen  on  the  prairie,  or  in  the  crowded  cities  of  the  East,  or  by 
the  dashing  waves  of  the  Pacific,  where  honored  missionaries  from 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  373 

Vermont  are  not  mentioned — in  all  lands — teaching  the  Indian  in 
his  western  wigwam,  sailing  up  the  Bosphorus  to  teach  the  besot 
ted  Turk,  and  holding  up  the  beacon  light  of  Christianity  to  the 
millions  of  Japan.  Dr.  Hiram  Brigham  was  the  missionary  his 
torian;  jurist  Redfield,  the  highest  authority  in  railroad  law;  Dr. 
Horace  Greene  was  long  the  leading  medical  authority  in  the 
Metropolis ;  and  Eev.  Dr.  T.  N.  Post,  the  eminent  veteran  of  a  St. 
Louis  pulpit. 

Before  the  political  lapsus  of  '84  (Rum,  Romanism  and  Rebell 
ion),  Vermont  furnished  president,  senate  president,  a  senatorial 
master  in  finance  and  head  of  the  judiciary,  and  three  foreign  dip 
lomats  of  a  high  class.  To-day,  Phelps  at  the  court  of  St.  James 
is  exchanging  civilities  with  Sir  Curtis  Lampson  —  the  only  Amer 
ican  knight,  a  Vermonter. 

There  is  one  unmentioned.  When  clouds  of  sorrow  hung  over 
us  drear  as  night  in  the  loss  of  our  beloved  President  Garfield,  our 
fears  for  the  nation's  future  were  quieted  in  the  known  character 
of  a  successor,  a  gentleman  educated  in  the  school  of  patriots, 
ample  in  the  resources  of  knowledge,  a  reader  of  men,  with  the 
skill  of  statesmanship,  of  whom  we  are  proud  in  his  eminence  — 
a  Vermonter  president  —  Chester  A.  Arthur. 

Diplomacy  has  rounded  eminent  civil  service  when  a  Ver- 
monter's  son  spoke  for  our  nation  in  a  European  capital,  while 
Stoughton  was  minister  at  St.  Petersburg,  Kasson  at  Vienna  and 
Marsh  at  Rome,  the  latter  longer  in  diplomatic  service  than  any 
American. 

In  art,  our  painters  have  made  respectable  attainment  in  land 
scape,  while  in  sculpture,  Mead  and  Powers  have  no  American 
superiors,  the  latter  the  restorer  of  glory  to  marble  in  the  Greek 
Slave. 

Under  the  inspiration  of  our  poets,  you  long  for  the  mountain 
air,  and  a  stroll  by  the  trout  brook.  Saxe  mounts  his  pegasus,  and 
all  the  Saxon  race  laughs.  Hudson  recites  his  conceptions  of  the 
great  poet  and  we  read  our  Shakespeare  anew. 

While  at  the  Iowa  State  Association  of  Vermonters,  I  organ 
ized  a  New  England  Society  absorbing  the  Vermont.  In  a  copy  of 
my  valedictory  I  find  these  words  : 

I  am  one  of  those  tramps,  born  by  the  mountains  with  no  expectation  or  desire 
of  being  born  anywhere  else.  In  this  we  are  kin,  protesting  that  the  down-South 
prodigal  adventurer,  with  several  outs  to  one  in,  who,  after  filial  invitations,  came 


374  REMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY    YEARS. 

to  himself  and  on  the  way  wired  his  father,  "  Fatted  calf  for  one  ",  was  not  a  Ver- 
monter.  They  return  home  with  a  trophy,  a  seal  skin  caught  in  exploring  for  the 
north  pole,  a  robe  won  in  a  buffalo  hunt  011  the  plains,  gold  from  the  gulch,  or  with 
an  honorable  scar  or  well-earned  star  from  battle-fields,  or  a  medal  of  honor.  If 
clouded  by  misfortunes,  they  indulge  in  the  charities  and  chances  of  cold  victuals 
and  cider  elsewhere.  Every  child  was  born  with  bright  expectations,  and  the  war 
fare  and  early  trials  of  the  pioneer  left  an  impress  with  posterity. 

Nature  was  our  mentor,  in  solitary  grandeur,  and  a  symbol  of  character  in  a 
backbone  of  granite  the  length  of  the  state ;  for  in  the  stern,  tests  of  principle  none 
to  the  manor  born  or  the  true  sons  abroad  called  in  any  Dr.  Appalacca  as  cosmetico 
for  a  curvature  of  the  spine. 

It  is  the  day  of  unions  and  leagues.  Let  us  in  our  western  home,  emulous  of 
the  fame  of  our  mountain  comrades,  spread  the  table  for  brother  east  of  the  Hud 
son,  embracing  the  noblest  of  yeomanry  in  the  world's  history,  not  forgetting  mari 
tal  adoptions  and  exchanges,  unifying  a  people  akin  in  origin  and  blended  in  labor. 

It  is  related  that  a  shepherd  dog,  hunting  all  night  in  cold  and  storm  on  the 
mountains  for  the  lost  sheep,  moved  the  admirer  of  canine  fidelity  to  the  inelegant 
comparison  "  that  all  there  is  of  good  in  man  is  the  dog  that  is  in  him  ".  If  we 
have  spoken  in  earnest  praise  of  our  old  home  and  the  fathers,  it  is  not  a  just  con 
clusion  that  most  of  the  good  in  our  national  family  is  the  Vermont  blood  in  it, 
when  the  bald  truth  is,  we  have  given  and  gotten,  exchanged  our  jewels  and  been 
fortunate  in  matrimonial  ventures. 

Hail,  old  mountain  home !  A  tear  for  the  veterans  dead  in  the  valleys,  grati 
tude  for  memories  of  her,  grand  in  history,  rich  in  every  animal  production  save 
the  mugwumps. 

Hail,  Vermont  mothers,  the  Cornelias  whose  jewels  are  the  Gracchi  sons, 
founding  states  afar  from  the  old  hive.  Our  marble  is  white  and  finer  the  deeper 
quarried,  so  shall  the  deep  study  of  the  virtues  of  our  mothers,  as  well  as  fathers, 
deepen  our  love  and  admiration  for  them  and  the  home  of  our  childhood.  They 
are  the  true  mothers  of  sons  who  moistened  many  a  battle-field  with  their  blood; 
and  whenever  led  by  generals  worthy  to  lead  them  and  determined  for  victory,  the 
soldiers  of  New  England,  whether  at  Bull  Bun,  in  the  swamps  of  the  Chick- 
ahominy,  with  spade  or  gun,  or  fighting  above  the  clouds  on  the  mountains  of  Ten 
nessee,  were  true  to  the  flag,  true  to  their  ancestral  fame,  and  true  to  their  God : 

"  Bight  in  the  van, 
On  the  red  rampart's  slippery  swell, 
With  hearts  that  beat  a  charge,  they  fell 
Foeward,  as  fits  a  man." 


SOLOMON    FOOTE. 

The  Hon.  Solomon  Foote,  for  thirty  years  a  senator  from  Ver 
mont,  was  a  friend  of  my  father  and  taught  school  in  an  adjoining 
district.  Being  chosen  by  the  Vermont  representatives,  to  speak 
at  the  funeral  obsequies  in  the  capitol,  April  12th,  1866,  I  said: 

It  is  a  pleasing  reflection  that  my  early  years  were  spent  near  the  mountain 
home  of  the  lamented  senator.  He  gave  me  assurance  of  his  friendship,  and  that 
he  cherished  the  memory  of  my  dearest  deceased  kindred  furnishes  me  an  occasion 
to  pay  a  brief  and  sorrowful  tribute  to  his  character  and  virtues. 


EEMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  375 

That  biography  which  follows  the  eulogistic  sketches  in  the  forum  will  place 
the  deceased  in  the  front  rank  of  our  American  gentlemen  and  statesmen,  the 
measure  of  whose  success  should  be  unseparated  from  the  associations  and  means 
by  which  it  was  attained.  The  grave  senator  ever  with  emotion  and  pride  spoke 
of  the  rural  town  of  Cornwall,  Vermont,  where  he  was  born.  Its  population  is  not 
a  thousand  souls,  and  less  at  the  beginning  of  this  century,  yet  has  the  distinguish 
ing  honor,  in  addition  to  an  intelligent  yeomanry,  of  furnishing  thirty-six  educated 
clergymen,  eighteen  lawyers,  twenty-three  physicians  and  fourteen  professional 
teachers.  Its  town  institutions  were  the  church,  the  lyceum  and  the  school.  In 
the  church  young  Solomon  was  baptized ;  at  the  lyceum  he  spoke,  to  give  promise 
of  future  eminence ;  and  the  school  he  left  to  become  a  teacher  and  college  gradu 
ate,  later  tutor,  and  founder  and  head  of  an  institution  of  learning.  He  honored 
the  vocation  of  the  schoolmaster  and  never  wearied  in  giving  this  humble  profes 
sion  credit  for  its  devotion  to  a  refined  civilization  and  the  general  welfare.  With 
truly  American  simplicity  he  taught  our  youth  self-reliance,  and  for  himself,  who 
owed  nothing  to  wealth,  the  partiality  of  friends,  or  the  issue  of  campaigns,  he 
regarded  it  as  fortunate  that  he  was  called  in  discipline  to  tread  the  hard,  rough 
paths  of  life.  He  was  proud  of  his  origin ;  and  that  filial  affection  of  a  fatherless 
boy  for  a  doting  and  devoted  mother  was  an  augury  of  future  fidelity  and  devotion 
to  the  national  weal,  most  fortunately  realized  in  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century 
of  service,  and  ending  in  one  of  the  most  glorious  tributes  on  record  to  the  worth 
of  parental  instruction  and  the  reality  and  value  of  the  Christian  religion. 

As  husband  and  father  he  was  doting  and  beloved;  a  scholar  without  ped 
antry;  a  gentleman  free  from  the  arts  of  the  courtier;  brave  in  action  without 
bravado ;  matchless  in  volume  and  sweetness  of  voice ;  persuasive  in  eloquence, 
yet  abstemious  in  speech;  genial  as  a  companion,  unwavering  in  friendship;  in 
society 

"  Pliant  as  reeds  where  streams  of  freedom  glide  " ; 
a  senator  and  statesman, 

"  Firm  as  the  hills  to  stem  oppression's  tide." 

Bereaved  and  gallant  people  of  Vermont,  millions  are  mourning  with  you 
to-day.  It  has  been  your  fortune  to  furnish  a  noble  exemplar  for  the  nation, 
reflecting  in  character  the  grandeur  of  your  evergreen  mountains  and  the  clear 
waters  distilled  in  the  rugged  cliffs. 

In  the  shadow  of  the  shaft  of  the  purest  marble  which  will  be  reared  to  com 
memorate  his  virtues  in  the  chosen  place  of  his  burial,  he  shall  sleep  with  the 
honors  of  a  hero,  for  here  he  met  a  mightier  than  earth's  mailed  soldier,  the  "king 
of  terrors",  and  with  a  smile.  With  a  premonition  of  an  early  dissolution,  he  was 
raised  from  his  pillow  to  gaze  once  more  upon  this  Capitol,  and  then,  with  mortal 
vision  ended,  to  bebold  in  its  brightness  the  city  of  the  living  God,  the  home  of  the 
ransomed  soul. 

In  the  address  to  my  fellow-townsmen  in  Vermont,  I  summed 
up  some  of  the  celebrities  of  that  state  in  the  following 

SHORTER    CATECHISM 

of  biographic  mention,  which  will  have  the  merit  of  brevity  and 
verity,  giving  the  names  of  a  few  eminent  in  our  annals : 

Who,  in  recognition  of  the  God  of  Armies,  in  laconic  speech, 


376  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEAPS. 

demanded  in  the  name  of  God  and  the  Continental  Congress,  a 
surrender  of  the  key  to  the  fortress  of  American  Liberty  at  Ticon- 
deroga  ?  —  ETHAN  ALLEN. 

What  jurist,  in  a  fugitive  slave  case,  first  trampled  on  the 
traditions  and  laws  of  human  chattelship,  in  demanding  before  a 
surrender  of  a  slave  which  was  held  for  return,  a  "bill  of  sale 
from  God  Almighty  "?  The  first  Vermont  judge  —  THEOPHILUS 
HARRINGTON. 

Who  was  the  general  in  the  late  rebellion  who  first  (in  Louisi 
ana),  comprehending  the  value  of  the  slave,  without  orders  enlisted 
colored  troops  ?  —  GENERAL  J.  W.  PHELPS. 

What  law-maker  and  leader  of  the  American  Congress,  by  his 
eloquence  and  courage,  gained  the  title  of  the  "  Old  Commoner "  ? 
A  native  of  Peacham,  Vt.  —  THADDEUS  STEVENS. 

Name  the  veteran  diplomat  and  first  in  the  rank  of  linguistic 
scholars  and  critics,  and  it  is  a  Vermonter,  with  more  than  national 
fame !  —  GEORGE  P.  MARSH. 

The  Christian  philanthropist  who  gave  the  library  of  this  great 
scholar  to  the  University  of  Vermont,  and  one  of  the  chaste  edi 
fices  of  the  world  to  his  college  —  the  peer  of  princes,  also  a  Ver 
monter — FREDERICK  BILLINGS. 

The  only  idol  of  the  democratic  party  loyal  to  the  flag  since 
General  Jackson,  the  "Little  Giant",  born  in  Brandon,  Vt.  —  STE 
PHEN  A.  DOUGLAS. 

Before  what  Vermont  sculptor  has  the  world  paid  homage  in 
recognition  of  that  master-piece  of  high  art,  the  Greek  Slave  ?  — 
HIRAM  POWERS. 

What  other  American  has  chiseled  his  genius  in  marble  and 
immortalized  it  in  decorative  bronze,  in  our  parks  and  galleries, 
until  rising  to  national  fame  ?  The  Brattleboro  boy  (though  born 
in  New  Hampshire) — LARKIN  G.  MEAD. 

Who  has  thrown  upon  the  canvas  the  beauty  of  the  valleys 
and  grandeur  of  the  mountains  of  his  native  land  better  than  our 
"Beech  Hill  Painter"? 

Where  an  Anglo-Saxon  the  equal  in  puns,  smoother  in  verse, 
more  brilliant  in  wit,  than  our  lamented  —  JOHN  G.  SAXE. 

None  but  the  Almighty  may  "weigh  the  mountains  in  scales, 
hills  in  a  balance  ",  but  next,  by  the  world's  acclaim,  decorated  by 
kings,  is  the  exact  weighing  of  earth's  jewels  and  products  by  the 
late  governor  —  ERASTUS  FAIRBANKS. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  377 

If  Vermont  gave  to  the  world  Joe  Smith  and  Mormonism,  with 
many  wives,  it  was  reserved  for  your  senator  to  crush  the  monster 
Hydra  —  GEORGE  F!  EDMUNDS. 

The  highest  ranking  minister,  save  him  who  holds  intercourse 
with  the  "King  of  Kings'',  is  a  Vermonter,  at  St.  James  Court,  in 
London  —  EDWARD  J.  PHELPS. 

What  American  divine  filled  one  of  the  first  places  west  of  the 
Mississippi  river?  The  lamented  veteran  of  St.  Louis — DR.  T. 
M.  POST. 

First  of  emancipation  orators,  deceased  in  New  York,  was  — 
ALVIN  STEWART. 

Who  presides  at  the  Centennial  celebration  at  Philadelphia,  in 
memory  of  the  adoption  of  the  National  Constitution?  A  Ver 
mont  diplomat  —  JOHN  A.  KASSON. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

The  Cherokee  Neutral  Land  Purchase — Emigrant  Aid  Company — 
Vindication  of  Secretary  James  Harlan — James  F.  Joy — First 
Bridge  across  the  Missouri — A  Texas  overland  Trip — Journey 
to  Mexico. 

IN  1868,  after  leaving  Congress,  I  had  connection  with  a  great 
land  sale.  It  drew  on  the  chief  actor  a  deluge  of  epithets  by 
the  envious,  and  loaded  the  press  with  crude  and  false  surmises. 
This  will  be  my  apology  for  the  narration  of  an  agency  resulting 
in  honor  to  all  parties  interested. 

The  Cherokee  Indians  were,  as  far  back  as  the  time  of  Presi 
dent  Jackson,  a  disturbing  factor  in  society  an,d  politics,  especially 
in  the  state  of  Georgia,  where  in  "  Old  Hickory "  for  a  time  they 
found  a  friend.  It  was  in  the  interest  of  slavery  that  the  tribe 
was  forcibly  removed  in  1838  by  General  Scott  to  the  Indian  Ter 
ritory.  Beside  an  exchange  of  land,  they  made  a  purchase  of 
800,000  acres  in  south-east  Kansas,  now  embraced  in  the  counties 
of  Crawford  and  Cherokee.  The  majority  of  the  tribe  in  the 
Indian  Territory  were  making  progress  in  agriculture,  but  gaining 
only  a  trivial  income  from  their  reservation,  the  neutral  lands 
being  fast  occupied  illegally  by  defiant  squatters.  The  Indians 
feared  that  the  government  would  fail  to  protect  their  rights,  when 
they  became  powerless  by  the  occupation  of  their  reservation.  It 
was  a  fair  tract  of  land  with  an  abundance  of  coal.  Then  the  rail 
road  extension  from  Kansas  City,  south,  devised  a  right  of  way  of 
fifty  miles,  and  a  law  to  facilitate  settlement. 

Judge  D.  N.  Cooley  was  commissioner  of  Indian  affairs,  and 
Ex-Senator  James  Harlan,  of  Iowa,  was  secretary  of  the  interior. 
It  was  Mr.  Harlan's  judgment  that  the  value  of  the  land  at  inter 
est  would  be  worth  more  to  the  Indians  in  the  present  and  pro- 
spectively  than  the  title  to  the  land,  in  jeopardy  and  without 
revenue. 

A  treaty  was  made  with  the  nine  chiefs  called  "  head  men ", 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  379 

persons  of  business  sagacity,  whereby  the  secretary  was  authorized 
to  make  treaty  stipulations  and  to  sell  the  land.  A  sale  was 
effected  to  the  American  Emigrant  Aid  and  Land  Company  for  the 
sum  of  $800,000,  on  which  the  company  was  to  pay  five  per  cent, 
for  the  use  of  the  money.  Scandals  were  at  once  set  afloat  by  pro 
fessional  black-mailers,  as  to  bribes.  Squatters  on  the  land  held 
meetings  to  resist  any  law  which  would  compel  the  payment  of 
money,  even  on  the  land  illegally  occupied. 

Hon.  James  F.  Joy,  of  Detroit,  representing  Boston  capital, 
was  building  a  bridge  at  Kansas  City  in  contemplation  of  a  trunk 
line  of  railway  southward  through  Kansas  and  the  Indian  Terri 
tory,  possibly  through  Texas  to  the  Gulf.  This  tract  of  land  was 
on  the  line,  but  had  passed  beyond  their  control;  and  the  late 
purchasers'  set  a  high  price  on  the  contract  under  Mr.  Harlan. 
Andrew  Johnson,  no  longer  the  " Moses  of  the  colored  man"  to 
lead  them  .out,  would  not  tolerate  radicals,  and  Mr.  Harlan,  secre 
tary  of  the  interior,  resigned.  0.  H.  Browning,  of  Illinois,  was 
his  successor,  and,  taking  legal  advice,  abrogated  the  sale  made  to 
the  emigrant  company  on  the  ground  that  time  payments  did  not 
conform  to  treaty  stipulations.  Mr.  Joy  appeared  as  a  purchaser 
for  cash,  in  the  interest  of  Kansas  City,  Fort  Scott  and  Gulf  Kail- 
road,  but  the  title  of  course  was  clouded  by  the  previous  sale,  and 
only  the  courts  after  long  delays  could  determine  the  status  of  the 
parties.  Every  hour  of  delay  in  adjustment  attracted  new  and 
defiant  settlers  to  the  land,  in  dispute  as  to  ownership. 

A    PURCHASE. 

At  this  stage,  and  in  prospect  of  litigation,  I  became  interested 
in  the  purchase ;  it  not  being  true  that  I  had  part  in  the  negotia 
tion  or  was  even  privy  to  the  sale  under  the  treaty.  The  owners 
held  the  purchase  by  tenths.  They  could  not  part  with  a  tenth 
without  the  assent  of  a  majority.  Mr.  Dewitt  C.  Wheeler,  of  New 
York,  about  to  leave  for  Europe,  had  one  tenth,  paying  down 
$25,000,  and  proposed  a  sale  of  his  interest,  and  a  majority  of  the 
company  had  urged  me  to  take  his  place,  which  I  did.  This  was 
after  a  full  knowledge  of  the  field  notes  of  the  land  by  a  late  sur 
vey  and  a  private  personal  inspection  of  the  tract.  Becoming  the 
agent  of  the  company  in  this  transaction,  I  called  on  Mr.  Joy  at 
Detroit  to  enjoin  him  from  assuming  any  acts  of  ownership,  but 


380  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

first  indicated  that,  after  years  of  litigation,  there  would  be  only 
loss  for  both  the  contestants.  Well-formed  as  his  head  is  for  stern, 
legal  controversy,  and  being  then  the  great  railway  magnate  of  the 
time,  he  was  ready  coyly  to  listen  to  a  compromise  which  was 
made  on  condition  that  his  purchase  should  be  officially  ratified. 
That  could  be  done  only  in  the  most  quiet  manner,  and  by  a  sup 
plemental  treaty  noticed  hereafter. 

The  following  attack,  enlarging  into  many  scandals,  was  made 
in  a  western  paper  and  a  reply  by  Mr.  Joy  followed: 

HARLAN    AND     GRINNELL. 

"Mr.  Grinnell  was  a  member  of  Congress.  He  was  also  Mr.  Harlan's  middle 
man  in  the  dealings  with  the  Connecticut  Emigrant  Company,  and  their  assigns, 
Mr.  Joy  and  his  friends,  in  the  Cherokee  treaty.  After  Browning  had  set  the  ille 
gal  treaty  of  Harlaii  aside  and  sold  the  lands  to  Joy,  Grinnell  was  then  the  man 
who  managed  the  payment  by  way  of  compromising  with  the  Connecticut  Com 
pany,  and  in  getting  the  subsequent  supplemented  treaty  through  the  Senate,  after 
Mr.  Harlan  got  back  there,  for  which  over  $50,000  was  paid  into  Grinnell's  hands 
at  one  time,  a  very  considerable  portion  of  which,  said  to  be  three  tenths,  was 
placed  at  the  control  of  Senator  Harlan  or  his  family.  Grinnell  is  still  the  active 
middle  man  and  lobby  agent  of  the  enormous  fraud  on  the  part  of  government  offi 
cials.  Mr.  Joy  played  only  the  part  of  getting  as  good  a  bargain  as  possible  from 
them." 

In  reply  to  this,  Mr.  Joy's  letter  is  here  given  in  justice  to  Sen 
ator  Harlan  and  myself: 

MICHIGAN  CENTRAL  RAILROAD  Co., 
PRESIDENT'S  OFFICE,  DETROIT,  Dec.  30,  1869. 
" My  Dear  Sir: 

"  With  reference  to  the  statements  made  by  the  correspondent  of  the  Cincinnati 
Gazette  relative  to  Messrs.  Harlan  and  Grinnell  touching  the  negotiations  for  the 
sale  of  the  neutral  lands,  and  in  which  allusions  have  been  made  to  myself,  I  can 
only  say  that  there  never  was  $50,000  paid  into  Mr.  Grinnell's  hands  in  any 
form.  That  amount  was  paid  to  the  American  Emigrant  Company,  of  which 
$25,000  was  to  reimburse  it  for  the  same  amount  which  had  been  paid  to  the  secre 
tary  of  the  Interior  by  it,  on  its  contract,  and  which  the  Railroad  Company  acquir 
ing  the  lands  had  the  benefit  of  as  a  payment  on  its  own  contract.  The  other 
$25,000  was  paid  as  being  the  difference  in  value  between  a  contract  on  time  at 
five  per  cent,  interest  and  a  cash  contract.  "We  therefore  deemed  that  we  were 
receiving  full  value  for  that  amount  of  money  which  was  paid  that  company. 
There  was  no  other  $50,000  paid,  nor  the  half  of  any  such  sum,  for  all  expenses 
connected  with  this  matter  at  Washington,  accounting  everything.  The  money 
paid  did  not  go  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Grinnell,  but  was  paid  to  the  treasurer  of 
the  Emigrant  Company.  Of  course  Mr.  Harlan  did  not,  and  could  not  receive 
any  part  of  it  from  him,  nor  could  any  of  his  family.  This  correspondent  is  there 
fore  in  these  particulars  wholly  mistaken.  There  was  no  money  used  in  Washing- 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  381 

ton  with  any  authority  of  mine  to  promote  the  passage  of  the  treaty.    At  that 
time  we  cared  not  enough  about  it  to  lavish  money  to  acquire  these  lands. 

"As  to  Mr.  Grinnell's  being  the  active  middle  man  and  lobby  agent  of  this 
'enormous  fraud',  I  have  to  say  he  is  not  now,  and  never  has  been,  the  agent  in 
any  sense  of  myself  or  the  Railroad  Company,  whether  in  the  lobby  or  otherwise. 

"  These  statements  being  due  both  to  Mr.  Harlan  and  Mr.  Grinnell,  you  may  ' 
make  such  use  of  this  as  you  please. 

"Yours  truly,  J.  F.  JOY. 

"HENRY  STRONG,  ESQ.,  Burlington,  Iowa." 

The  above  states  the  conditions  of  the  transfer.  There  could 
have  been  no  successful  negotiation  with  the  chiefs  or  with  the 
Indian  department,  if  the  affair  had  been  made  public. 

Mr.  Harlan  was  in  his  old  seat  in  the  Senate  and  held  in  honor 
for  his  personal  and  official  integrity.  He  desired  a  settlement  of 
the  question  in  the  interest  of  owners  and  purchasers  outside  the 
courts.  Secretary  Browning  personally  was  favorable  to  an  early 
settlement,  aside  from  his  well-founded  doubts  as  to  the  legality  of 
the  second  sale. 

It  was  here  that  I  entered  upon  the  most  delicate  and  difficult 
service  of  my  life.  I  began  at  the  lower  stratum,  after  the  man 
ner  of  starting  a  coal  fire.  My  first  week's  study  was  with  the 
chiefs,  to  learn  of  whom  to  make  a  confidant  for  quiet  work ;  not  a 
council  with  speeches  was  necessary ;  the  open  course  would  have 
awakened  an  army  of  half-breeds,  outside  lawyers  and  agents,  end 
ing  in  complication  and  defeat.  By  strategy  I  kept  "  Big  Indian  " 
from  the  saloons,  and  isolated  and  sworn  not  to  divulge  the  sign 
ing  of  a  request.  All  assenting,  there  was  but  one  party  entrusted 
with  the  secret,  viz  :  the  commissioner  of  Indian  affairs.  Ex-Gov 
ernor  Merrill,  of  Maine,  was  chairman  of  the  Senate  Indian  com 
mittee,  and,  with  all  his  caution,  came  near  giving  away  the  device 
for  settlement.  . 

Pair  as  the  prospect  was,  and  for  mutual  interests,  the  long 
speeches  in  executive  session  to  kill  the  treaty  are  known.  I  did 
not  shorten  them,  and  if  a  Kansas  City  capitalist  did,  it  was  not 
by  my  money  or  sanction. 

In  the  White  House  there  was  a  long  hitch  and  actual  peril. 
The  president,  I  dare  say  when  not  sober,  had  declared  the  treaty 
should  never  be  signed  by  him,  and  there  was  a  rumor  that  his 
son,  his  private  secretary,  demanded  so  much,  saying  a  certain  sum 
would  get  the  "  old  man's  name  ".  I  was  powerless  with  the  presi 
dent,  I  am  happy  to  say,  having  no  standing  at  the  White  House ; 


382  REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

and  weeks  passed  with  no  word  as  to  the  treaty.  What  local  cap 
italists  may  have  done  to  avert  bankruptcy  I  do  not  even  guess; 
nor  will  I  start  a  rumor  related  to  official  depravity  in  the  demand 
of  one  person,  limited  in  means  in  a  career  of  dissipation.  The 
president  was  still  unyielding,  soured  by  the  impeachment  trial 
and  suspicious  of  all. 

Senator  Grimes  was  apprised  of  the  steps  to  sustain  Mr.  Har- 
lan,  his  colleague,  and  of  the  interest  his  personal  business  friends 
took  in  the  ratification  of  the  treaty,  and  was  slow  in  crediting 
rumors  of  venality  and  the  obstinacy  of  President  Johnson.  It 
was  difficult  to  impress  the  senator  with  the  peril,  and  more  diffi 
cult  to  assure  him  that  he  was  the  only  man  who  could  bring  us 
success.  A  good  and  just  status  he  has  maintained,  refusing  to 
vote  on  the  treaty  because  as  a  railway  stockholder  his  road  might 
have  an  interest  in  the  neutral  lands.  At  last,  on  advising  with 
his  personal  friend,  Senator  Fessenden,  he  made  a  formal  call  on 
the  president,  the  first  since  he  had  voted  against  impeachment. 
The  gratitude  of  the  unimpeached  is  assumed,  also  the  diplomacy 
of  his  caller,  who  had  an  incidental  errand  —  it  was  to  inform  as  to 
the  scandal  in  opposing  that  treaty,  against  which  there  were  only 
four  senatorial  votes.  The  president  said,  "  I  hear  there  is  a  pile 
of  money  back  of  it,  and  I  am  waiting  to  see  Browning,  for  Culbert 
says  there  are  millions  at  stake".  Grimes7  answer  was,  " Culbert 
was  an  outside  Indian,  no  doubt,  and  if  your  secretary  is  a  party  to 
a  job  the  sooner  you  know  it  the  better.  I  did  not  vote  for  it  on 
account  of  a  possible  contingent  interest,  though  not  holding  stock 
in  this  railroad  scheme."  The  bell  calls.  Bob,  the  son  and  secre 
tary,  is  summoned,  and  an  order  given  to  bring  the  treaty,  it  was 
not  at  hand,  and  there  was  a  suspicion  of  theft  or  concealment. 
Senator  Grimes  left,  receiving  a  pledge  that  soon  he  would  hear 
from  the  treaty.  What  followed  as  to  the  cost  of  finding  and 
securing  a  signature,  is  related  to  a  scandalous  rumor.  The  fact  is, 
no  one  could  have  saved  the  supplemental  treaty  but  Senator 
Grimes ;  and  to  him  outsiders  said  there  would  have  been  a  deaf 
ear,  but  for  the  favor  of  an  anti-impeachment  vote.  This  is  his 
tory,  and  complimentary  to  the  sagacity  and  integrity  of  one  who 
was  above  casting  his  vote  to  secure  an  official  favor.  Angry  set 
tlers  were  on  the  neutral  lands.  They  had,  by  delays,  become  a 
formidable  party,  resorting  to  law;  and  belligerent  threats  came 
forth  in  resolves.  "A  railroad  engineer  would  require  a  coat  of 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  383 

mail  for  protection ;  and  Joy,  Grinnell  and  Coates,  might  grace  a 
tree  by  suspension."  A  more  unreasoning  border  community  bent 
on  violence,  lias  not  been  known. 

I  happened  to  be  in  a  small  town  on  my  way  to  Baxter  Springs, 
where,  while  the  mail  was  changing,  a  band  of  settlers  had  met. 
They  raised  a  stage  coach  curtain  to  say  they  were  on  the  look  for 
enemies,  but  guessed  the  men  they  wanted  were  not  along.  I  was 
unarmed,  and  the  second  on  their  list  marked  for  violence.  It  was 
not  safe  to  return  the  same  road,  so  bent  were  they  on  taking  the 
life  of  one  in  reality  aiding  their  good  fortune. 

On  the  failure  of  the  treaty,  the  squatters  would  have  been 
removed  before  the  bayonets  of  regular  troops.  The  first  step 
toward  a  settlement  was  taken  in  appraising  the  lands,  improved 
in  good  faith  for  homes,  and  commissioners  had  the  protection  of 
soldiers.  These  lands  were  choice  selections  and  only  priced  at 
about  $1.80  an  acre,  on  which  time  was  given  for  payment.  The 
next  device  toward  a  peaceful  settlement  was  an  offer  of  a  double 
price  for  the  lands  where  a  railroad  should  be  built.  Mr.  Joy, 
denounced  as  their  great  enemy,  soon  came  to  be  regarded  as  a 
friend.  Welcomes  took  the  place  of  threats,  and  the  honors  paid 
and  homage  felt  were  illustrated  by  a  ludicrous  incident  connected 
with  Mr.  Joy,  whom  I  am  later  to  set  in  a  biographical  picture. 

THE    MAYOR    BLACKING    BOOTS. 

We  paused  at  Paola,  Kansas,  a  young  city  in  the  agony  of 
expectation,  the  citizens  happy  over  Mr.  Joy's  arrival,  and  I  was 
the  "next  man"  who  got  up  the  treaty,  preparatory  to  a  railroad. 
Going  down  in  the  morning  first,  I  returned  to  inform  Mr.  Joy 
how  much  of  a  lion  he  was,  and  that  even  the  city's  Mayor  was 
radiant  with  smiles,  ready  with  a  coat-brush  and  to  black  his 
boots.  "Nonsense!  I'll  submit  to  no  such  thing."  "But  that  is 
what  the  landlord  says,  and  they  may  have,  like  some  of  our 
northern  cities,  a  very  common  mayor."  On  going  down  and  wait 
ing  for  the  obsequious  official,  a  light  mulatto  man  presented  him 
self  with  a  "Fine  morning"  salutation,  ready  to  give  a  shine.  I 
had  taken  in  the  compound  truth  and  joke,  and  said,  "Mr.  Joy,  we 
are  on  the  border,  with  new  experiences,  and  among  people  not 
bred  to  high  notions,  but  hearty  friends  and  obliging  dignitaries  ". 
"Yes,  I  see  our  man  is  here,  an  artist  with  a  brainy  head."  "Yes 
and  it  is  no  illusion  of  mine  that  you  are  now  complimenting  the 


384  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

city  mayor  —  I  dare  say  as  good  in  giving  a  polish  as  in  gaining 
votes."  The  job  was  done,  and  Mr.  Joy  held  out  a  quarter.  "No 
sir !  I  want  no  pay.  We  want  a  railroad,  and  you  are  the  man  to 
bring  it.  It  is  your  kind  of  gentlemen  that  I  like  to  serve."  At 
this  point  I  quietly  suggested,  "This  is  more  than  the  freedom  of 
the  city,  granted  by  eastern  mayors  to  distinguished  visitors". 
Mr.  Joy,  still  doubting,  asked,  "But,  are  you  the  mayor,  sir?" 
"I  think  the  landlord  here  will  tell  you  that  I  had  a  good  major 
ity.  But  this  was  my  old  trade  down  in  St.  Louis,  and  shoemak 
ers  stick  to  their  lasts.  And  this  is  a  mighty  dirty  country,  sah, 
so  I  hold  on  to  de  brush.  Color  don't  go  far,  down  in  dese  parts, 
if  the  people  set  out  for  sport."  "  Then  you  were  elected  ? " 
"Certainly;  but  I  ain't  doing  very  much  in  the  mayor  business. 
There's  not  much  to  do,  and  I  turn  it  over  to  a  white  man,  so  I  can 
wait  on  you  gentlemen."  "Is  that  the  reason?"  "To  tell  the 
truth,  sah,  I  was  mighty  popular.  But  railroad  coming,  Mr.  Joy 
and  other  big  people,  I  thought  best  to  wait  and  serve  big  men, 
and  our  big  city  by-and-by."  "  Didn't  you  take  the  oath  of  office 
to  serve  ?  "  "  Not  yet."  "  Why  didn't  you,  if  a  legal,  fair  elec 
tion  ?  "  "  They  call  this  a  white  man's  country  about  here,  and  I 
didn't,  for  I  was  afraid  they  would  take  an  appeal  on  me." 

The  laugh  on  "taking  an  appeal"  was  boisterous.  Mr.  Joy  was 
convulsed,  saying  the  humorous  jest  of  the  man  in  his  fear  of  an 
appeal  was  up  to  the  best  stories  of  the  jurists  at  the  bar.  In  the 
carriage  on  a  long  tour,  "  taking  an  appeal  on  him  "  was  the  signal 
for  a  round  of  stories  enlivened  with  the  appeal  episode. 

The  Jay  Hawker  tale,  told  by  Gen.  Blunt,  may  here  be  in  place. 
This  neutral  land  had,  like  the  Indian  Territory,  been  swept  of 
food,  stock  and  homes,  first  by  one  party,  and  then  the  other,  led  by 
Kansas  adventurers,  and  every  grade  of  Jay  Hawkers.  Their  char 
acter  and  occupation  was  set  out  by  Gen.  J.  G.  Blunt,  a  bold  fighter 
and  an  ardent  Union  patriot.  The  Indians  and  border  whites  were 
divided  in  politics,  and  their  homes  were  alternately  burnt  by  the 
foraging  war  parties.  If  there  was  honor  among  thieves,  it  was 
drawn  at  the  line  of  loyalty  giving  absolute  protection  to  your 
own  clan,  and  impoverishing  secret  enemies.  Where  one  party 
had  left  stock,  goods  and  food,  it  was  a  sign  of  disloyalty,  and  a 
signal  for  consumption  or  destruction  by  the  other.  He  was  a 
hero  that  despoiled  most,  and  that  raid  only  a  success  which  left 
nothing  behind  for  an  enemy. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  385 

This  was  General  Blunt's  story.  The  last  chicken  was  plucked, 
pig  roasted,  and  pony  mounted  for  an  adieu,  when  a  store  with  col 
ored  blinds  was  opened,  it  being  that  of  a  small  grocer  with  a  stock 
of  drugs.  The  tobacco  and  sweets  were  soon  pocketed  and  coffee 
distributed,  but  what  of  the  glass  jars  and  jugs?  Here  was  a  test 
of  the  passion  of  destruction  and  appropriation.  Jars  and  bottles 
were  musical  in  breaking ;  but  what  of  the  contents  ?  It  could 
not  be  left  to  an  enemy,  and  there  was  a  scramble  and  ludicrous 
swallowing  of  a  materia  medica  outfit.  Salts,  jalap,  quinine,  and 
everything  with  a  whiskey  component  was  devoured  with  especial 
avidity.  "  Heavens ! "  said  he,  "  what  have  you  done  in  your 
raids  ?  Not  content  with  the  last  fowl,  you  have  swallowed  a  drug 
store ! "  I  think  he  burlesqued  the  affair  by  an  order  that  the  pre 
scriptions  hereafter  should  be  made  by  the  surgeon,  and  it  would 
be  against  the  army  regulations  to  swallow  another  drug  store  even 
to  prevent  its  falling  into  the  hands  of  an  enemy. 

What  was  this  land  scheme  treaty  to  the  parties  ?  Every  way 
beneficial.  The  trespassers  came  to  have  a  legal  claim  to  home 
and  realty.  From  a  threatening  and  blood-thirsty  company  they 
rose  to  the  standard  of  peaceful  citizens,  and  friends  of  order  and 
capital.  Their  titles  were  perfected  under  the  sanction  of  a  treaty, 
and  company  warranty.  A  railroad,  first  class  in  all  appoint 
ments,  brought  life  where  before  was  stagnation,  although  in  prox 
imity  to  an  extensive  coal  domain.  It  was  possessed:  of  timber  for 
ties  and  bridges  without  purchase,  and  had  control  of  coal  mines 
hitherto  undeveloped  for  want  of  capital,  and  means  of  freighting. 
Lands  were  graded  according  to  quality  and  proximity  to  a  depot. 
Freighting  of  cattle  from  the  Indian  Territory  and  Texas  became  a 
source  of  revenue,  and  stimulated  a  profitable  cattle  industry.  By 
a  mistake  in  making  the  south  terminal  at  Baxter  Springs  rather 
than  in  the  Neosho  valley,  the  franchise  across  the  Indian  Terri 
tory,  by  a  technical  ruling  of  Secretary  Cox,  was  lost.  A  more 
profitable  device  was  found  in  extending  the  road  to  Springfield, 
Missouri,  and  later  on  to  Memphis,  a  distance  of  six  hundred  miles 
from  Kansas  City. 

HON.    JAMES    HARLAN. 

This  man  deserves  here  more  than  a  simple  defense.  He  has 
been  an  honored,  able  servant  of  Iowa  and  the  nation.  A  gentle 
man  of  education,  he  was  elected  territorial  superintendent  of  pub- 


386  EEMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

lie  instruction.  Then  he  was  president  of  the  Methodist  College 
at  Mt.  Pleasant,  until  called  to  the  United  States  Senate,  to  which 
he  was  four  times  elected,  filling  vacancies  and  full  terms. 

Education  and  probity  well  equipped  him  for  the  secretaryship 
of  the  Interior,  to  which  he  was  appointed  on  Mr.  Lincoln's  second 
term.  His  daughter  has  since  married  the  surviving  son  of  the 
president,  Robert  T.  Lincoln,  secretary  of  war  under  President 
Hayes,  now  our  British  minister.  There  was  nothing  held  in  com 
mon  by  President  Johnson  and  Mr.  Harlan,  who  resigned  as  cabi 
net  minister  at  an  early  day.  Mr.  Harlan  served  several  years  as 
judge  on  the  court  of  claims,  and  everywhere  has  maintained  a 
high  character.  Reference  is  often  made  to  a  check  of  several 
thousand  dollars  found  by  a  voucher,  for  money  used  in  a  political 
Iowa  campaign.  It  came  by  an  agent  of  the  Union  Pacific  Rail 
road,  but  there  was  no  evidence  that  Mr.  Harlan  disbursed  it,  or 
that  it  was  used  for  any  but  legitimate  odjects  incident  to  the 
efforts  of  partial  friends  in  an  exciting  campaign  like  that  for  sen 
ator  in  Iowa.  The  cry  of  great  wealth  gained  while  in  public  life 
is  also  a  baseless  aspersion.  Mr.  Harlan,  after  thirty  years  of  ser 
vice,  had  only  property  to  bring  a  moderate  income,  and  has  never 
been  charged  with  extravagance  or  speculation.  Mrs.  Harlan  and 
two  children  died  some  time  since,  leaving  the  honored  statesman 
to  the  company  of  Mrs.  Lincoln,  his  daughter,  between  whom  in 
Chicago  and  his  Iowa  home  he  passed  the  days  of  quiet  and  hon 
ored  age  with  wide  and  warm  friendships. 

JAMES    F.    JOY.    LL.    D. 

The  City  of  Detroit  has  a  citizen  eminent  in  affairs,  and  alike 
noted  for  versatility  and  the  youthful,  firm  bearing  of  one  over 
eighty  years  of  age.  In  his  Western  career  of  half  a  century  the 
public  recalls  no  single  conspicuous  failure,  not  even  in  the  nomi 
nation  of  Elaine  for  the  presidency  at  Chicago  in  1884.  The  first 
of  the  "Plumed  Knights"  were  sagacious  as  to  a  spokesman  —  one 
who  has  the  fame  of  a  financier  and  the  poise  of  a  sedate  gentle 
man.  It  is  no  just  reflection  on  the  orator  that  (in  mental  lapsus) 
there  was  a  mirthful  pause,  when  on  reaching  the  climax  of  praise 
he  had  to  seek  in  sotto  voce  a  prompter  for  the  name  of  his  hero, 
James  G-.  Blaine. 

It  is  near  fifty  years  since  Boston  capitalists  sought  to  pur 
chase  of  the  state  of  Michigan  its  pioneer  Central  Railroad.  The 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS.  387 

capitalists  sought  the  famed  lawyer  of  Harvard,  asking  his  efficient 
assistance  in  a  draft  of  the  contract.  On  this,  there  was  a  rare  case 
of  self-abnegation  in  commending  Mr.  Joy,  a  graduate,  and  equal  to 
any  legal  occasion.  Besides,  he  was  on  the  ground  and  well  versed 
in  Michigan  statutes.  That  legal  service  was  soon  rendered  by 
Mr.  Joy,  and  was  in  the  line  of  that  eminence  which  brought  the 
rare  autocratic  prerogatives  of  a  railway  magnate,  of  whom  it  was 
to  be  true  that  neither  chance  nor  charity  had  anything  to  do 
in  future  promotions.  The  Michigan  Central  was  soon  engaged, 
and  the  C.,  B.  &  Q.,  with  lines  into  Illinois,  Iowa,  Missouri,  Kansas 
and  Nebraska,  numbering  from  fifteen  to  twenty;  their  inception 
mainly  traced  to  the  broad  brain  without  a  peer  in  repute  and 
authority  a  few  years  since,  not  only  in  the  use  of  capital  but  in 
delicate  combinations  based  on  the  natural  growth  and  the  most 
sanguine  predictions  of  the  West. 

The  first  bridge  across  the  Missouri  river  was  by  him  located 
and  built  at  Kansas  City  —  a  commercial  strategic  key.  I  read  a 
poem  by  Prof.  H.  W.  Parker,  of  Iowa  College,  at  the  dedication. 
The  following  extract  from  the  poem  may  be  appended,  premising 
that  the  builder's  name  was  Chanute : 

"  O  Missouri  wild,  the  mountains'  child, 

Unfettered  since  man  began ! 
You  have  learned  to  stray  in  a  devious  way, 

And  have  laughed  at  the  power  of  man. 
But  a  wooer  bold,  of  a  mighty  mould, 

Your  roving  will  shall  bind ; 
With  his  girder  arms  he  clasps  your  charms, 

And  tames  your  wayward  mind. 
Then  sing  of  the  Bridge,  the  first  to  invade 
The  heart  of  the  mountain  maid. 

Old  King  Canute,  he  thought  he  was  cute 

When  he  sat  on  Britain's  strand, 
And  looked  for  the  tide  to  humble  its  pride 

Through  fear  of  his  royal  command ; 
But  a  wiser  than  he  to-day  we  see  — 

Chanute,  our  builder  brave, 
Whose  master  brain,  with  Xerxes'  chain, 

Has  bound  the  careering  wave. 
Then  sing  of  the  Bridge,  the  first  to  girth 
The  proudest  river  of  earth. 

Let  the  King  of  yore,  on  oblivion's  shore, 

Recline  in  his  golden  chair ; 
The  future  shall  sing  the  railroad  King 

Who  dwells  by  the  Lake  St.  Clair. 


388  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

With  harvests  glad  the  wilds  shall  be  clad, 

And  a  scene  of  Joy  shall  reach 
From  the  land  of  the  pine  to  the  seething  brine 

That  breaks  on  the  Texas  beach. 
Then  sing  the  Bridge,  the  first  to  unbar 
Our  way  to  the  bright  Lone  Star. 

Great  river,  flow,  from  the  peaks  of  snow 

A  thousand  miles  away ! 
A  mightier  stream  we  see  in  the  dream 

That  floats  before  us  to-day  — 
A  river  of  souls  and  wealth  that  rolls 

Across  the  flooding  tide ; 
Lo!  onward  it  steams  along  the  beams 

That  span  these  waters  wide ! 
.Then  sing  the  Bridge,  the  first  to  stride 
The  glorious  Missouri's  tide." 

A  road  southward  toward  the  Great  Gulf,  to  appropriate,  under 
treaty,  the  Cherokee  neutral  lands  for  the  benefit  of  all  parties 
and  for  developing  its  coal  fields,  rich  and  wide,  was  a  most  happy 
scheme.  To  this  was  connected  by  sagacious  investors  other  Kan 
sas  and  Nebraska  extensions  in  sober  pace  with  population.  Later 
reverses  are  not  the  sequence  of  his  conservative  management,  and 
it  is  the  sentiment  of  financiers  that  the  compensation  given  a 
national  president  would  have  been  a  cheap  return  for  his  wise 
counsel. 

Mr.  Joy  was  a  classical  scholar  of  Dartmouth,  tutor  of  some 
most  eminent  Americans,  an  advocate  in  the  high  courts,  a  finan 
cier,  long  trusted  custodian  of  money,  and  prince  of  adventure  in 
the  West,  When  securing  on  the  prairie  a  right  of  way,  or  when 
a  visitor  incog,  on  the  border,  a  pocket  edition  of  some  favorite 
Greek  or  Roman  classic  would  be  found  in  his  hand.  Divert  him 
from  reading  ?  No  !  So  ardent  were  his  friends,  who  knew  of  his 
learning  and  probity,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  endorsed  a  long  and  able 
Bar  petition  for  him  as  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court.  This  fine 
compliment  to  the  fame  of  the  jurist  found  an  approval  at  the  cab 
inet  meeting.  It  was  then  that  Mr.  Lincoln  spoke.  "I  assume  it 
is  all  right;  but  somewhere  I  have  filed  away  a  letter  from  this 
gentleman  which  I  had  forgotten."  Mr.  Joy,  as  executive  of  the 
.C.,  B.  &  Q.  Railway  had,  in  a  local  legal  contest,  asked  Mr.  Lincoln 
to  appear  for  his  company.  On  a  rendering  of  a  court  decision, 
Abraham  Lincoln  sent  his  bill,  which  was  so  large  that  Mr.  Joy 
asked  to  have  it  cut  down.  The  answer  came,  "  Mr.  Joy,  no  reduc- 


REMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY   TEARS.  389 

tion ! "  to  which  there  was  a  reply,  "  It  is  out  of  reason  for  a  coun 
try  lawyer  to  make  such  a  charge ;  it  is  next  to  extortion,  but  I 
will  pay  it  and  this  will  end  our  business." 

As  a  bird  of  the  air  gives  the  news,  Mr.  Lincoln  only  said, 
"Our  would-be  justice  in  his  economic  mood  was  rather  severe  on 
the  country  lawyer".  The  remark  was  followed  by  silence;  no 
one  made  a  motion.  The  court  lost  a  brave,  learned  justice,  but  in 
the  language  of  Mr.  Joy,  "I  escaped  routine,  and  an  elevation 
which  would  have  caused  restiveness,  pecuniary  loss,  also  loss  of 
physical  vigor,  now  only  maintained  by  the  activities  of  a  business 
life". 

Thus,  in  service  as  trustee,  manager,  magnate,  disburser  of  a 
hundred  million  of  dollars,  with  autocratic  prerogatives,  he  has 
escaped  even  well-grounded  suspicion  of  dereliction  in  duty,  or  dis 
loyalty  to  noble  purposes,  in  the  fiscal  concerns  of  our  great  era  of 
railway  construction,  conservation  and  combinations.  With  admi 
ration  for  the  youthful  professor,  ripening  in  cultured  tastes,  abste 
mious  in  habits,  now  graceful  with  age  and  the  optimism  of  youth, 
I  feel  sure  that  the  great  scheme  of  a  tunnel  under  the  Detroit 
River,  of  which  he  has  long  been  the  champion,  is  certain,  by  his 
advocacy,  of  ultimate  success.  And  when  the  Canadas  shall  come 
to  us,  falling  gently  like  ripened  fruit,  I  name  James  F.  Joy  as  the 
minister  plenipotentiary,  to  arrange  the  conditions  of  the  nuptials 
and  union,  riot  doubting  that  his  agency  would  be  exercised  with 
tact,  probity  and  honor. 

A  TEXAS  OVERLAND   TRIP. 

My  service  in  the  neutral  land  treaty  came  to  be  germane  to  a 
larger  scheme  in  railway  extension,  through  the  Indian  Territory, 
to  G-alveston,  or  to  Bolivar's  Point,  deemed  a  better  harbor  on  the 
east. 

I  set  out  on  this  trip  incognito,  April,  1869,  with  letters  from 
the  war  department  asking  military  escort  if  necessary.  Inci 
dentally  I  visited  points  where  there  was  illicit  distilling;  yet 
openly  I  was  a  traveler,  with  an  eye  to  railroad  building  in  which 
William  E.  Dodge,  of  New  York,  was  interested;  and  there  were 
suspicions  as  to  persons  in  his  employ  —  names  and  particulars 
not  public. 

My  company  was  chosen  for  a  thousand  miles  of  exploration, 
where  Indians,  ex-convicts,  counterfeiters,  and  every  degree  of 


390  REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY  YEARS. 

Texas  outlawry,  brought  such  dangers  that  General  Sheridan 
sought  to  dissuade  me,  saying  he  would  rather  take  his  chances 
in  any  battle  in  which  he  was  ever  engaged,  than  trust  his  life  on 
such  a  trip.  I  was  to  go ;  and  did,  unarmed.  My  company  of  five 
was  reduced  to  one,  on  hearing  of  assassins  and  murders.  It  was 
Major  John  Delahoyde,  who  had  seen  years  of  service  in  our  war, 
and  bore  wounds  as  the  marks  of  service,  who  was  my  sole  com 
panion,  though  he,  too,  deemed  army  campaigns  not  so  perilous  as 
this  journey. 

In  the  course  of  this  journey,  we  found  the  doors  were,  without 
locks,  and  dogs,  numerous  as  they  were  and  energetic  with  fleas, 
seemed  too  stupid  for  alarm ;  and  we  slept  only  by  turns  in  watch 
ing,  for  there  was  a  suspicion  that  spies,  neutral  land  avengers, 
were  on  our  track  for  robbery  or  revenge.  There  was  more  than  a 
suspicion.  The  mail  stage  refused  to  take  more  than  one  of  us ; 
the  other,  to  divide  the  load,  was  to  go  by  another  conveyance.  I 
took  the  first  hack,  the  other  to  follow.  After  some  delay  it  did 
not  start,  and  the  major  engaged  a  buggy  and  driver  at  almost  the 
value  of  the  horse,  and  followed.  I  was  in  the  company  of  one  of 
the  most  desperate  of  the  border  ruffians,  and  on  a  by-road  I  was 
to  be  an  easy  victim.  A  stop  on  a  false  pretence  was  made,  and  I 
was  about  to  conceal  myself  in  the  thicket  when  my  companion 
came  in  sight,  with  a  horse  able  by  rapid  driving  to  go  faster.  I 
left  my  company  fortunately,  waiving  hack  fare  and  compliments. 
There  was  a  plot,  and  the  hotel  people,  back  thirty  miles,  expected 
only  to  hear  of  murder ;  and  an  officer  was  even  indulging  a  hope 
of  fees  on  the  return  of  the  driver  and  his  accomplice.  It  was 
then  I  recalled  Sheridan's  caution,  and  only  realized  the  good  for 
tune  in  my  escape  when  at  Red  Elver  the  military  commandant 
gave  an  opinion  that  it  was  a  close  call,  on  a  route  where  so  many 
adventurers  ended  their  lives  or  were  never  heard  from. 

At  Fort  Gibson  I  spent  Sunday.  It  is  a  delightful  location  on 
the  Arkansas  river,  and  assumed  importance  as  a  military  post 
during  the  war,  with  fine  store-rooms  now  empty,  and  a  neat  white 
church  with  columns  facing  the  public  square.  My  hotel  lady 
was  a  queenly  half-blood  who  took  no  sides  in  the  "wah",  and 
entertained  me  with  stories,  little  regarding  Sunday,  which  she 
held  to  be  as  good  as  any  other  day.  "  A  heap  of  people  used  to 
go  in  thar  —  it  is  Piscopal  now;  nobody  owns  it  —  mighty  fine." 
I  asked  if  there  were  not  enough  to  fill  the  church.  "  Laws,  yes, 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETT   TEARS.  391 

but  no  chaplain,  and  travelers  don't  often  stay  over.  The  wall 
ruined  everything."  The  street  porcines  were  numerous  and  act 
ive,  stirred  by  hunger.  Soon  a  mother  swine  appeared  with  a 
large  litter  of  pigs  in  her  train,  walking  up  the  steps  and  passing 
through  the  door.  Venturing  the  remark  that  if  numbers  made  a 
congregation  there  was  a  good  start — "That  is  nothing",  said  my 
hostess,  "stragglers  and  the  drinkers  make  the  seats  a  bed,  and 
may  drop  some  crackers  which  the  hogs  will  eat ".  A  couple  of 
hungry  goats  soon  went  up  the  steps  to  compose  a  mixed  gather 
ing,  and  the  swine  came  out  of  the  other  door  in  a  race  before 
their  pursuers.  They  were  not  more  than  in  full  possession  before 
a  lank,  belligerent-faced  dog  entered  the  church,  and  the  bleat  of 
distress  and  the  bark  stirred  my  curiosity  to  look  into  the  church, 
so  attractive  to  the  animals.  Billy-goat  had  taken  to  the  pulpit, 
and  his  ample  horns  resisted  an  assault  in  the  canine  push  for 
supremacy.  Another  herd  of  swine  came  on  in  the  rear,  to 
enliven  the  scene  in  a  Sunday  tableau.  It  was  a  ludicrous  scene, 
and  the  sacrilege  led  me  to  interpose ;  and,  before  my  cane,  pigs, 
goats  and  dogs  retired  in  the  order  of  their  entrance  with  reluctant 
speed,  while  I  both  mused  and  laughed  over  the  animal  inci 
dents —  a  most  impressive  lesson  on  the  wastes  of  war,  and  the 
decline  toward  barbarism  of  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  all  Amer 
ican  regions,  in  a  clime  "where  every  prospect  pleases  and  only 
man  is  vile". 

In  my  travels  I  recall  only  one  parallel  relapse  toward  barba 
rism  seen  in  the  occupation  of  a  public  building.  In  1853  I  was 
figuring  on  the  value  of  a  tract  of  land  (forty  miles  west  of  Hanni 
bal,  Mo.)  which  by  the  map  was  near  Marion  College,  to  which  our 
family  had  made  a  contribution  of  money ;  and  this  institution  was 
supposed  to  enhance  the  value  of  our  land.  Nearing  the  spot  as 
laid  down  by  the  map,  I  made  inquiries,  but  got  no  light.  At  last 
I  directed  my  questions  to  a  polite  colored  man,  who  wanted  to 
know  what  a  college  was.  It  was  a  brick  edifice  I  was  sure ;  and 
he  said,  "  You  turn  down  such  a  road  in  the  brush  and  you  will  see 
a  mighty  long  house  ".  The  college  was  found  after  a  short  ride. 
What  a  campus!  Tall  weeds  had  sprung  up  where  the  plough  had 
been,  and  open  windows  indicated  vacant  rooms  and  anything  but 
a  seat  of  learning.  We  hitched  the  horses  to  a  tree,  and  resolved 
to  go  through  a  Missouri  college.  .  The  doves,  frightened,  came  out 
from  the  upper  story  of  a  long  brick  edifice,  in  great  numbers. 


392  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

bearing  the  door,  or  the  place  where  there  had  been  one,  out 
rushed  a  flock  of  sheep  from  the  lower  story,  where  they  had  quar 
ters  in  an  escape  from  flies  and  heat.  The  waste  by  slavery  I 
had  only  read  of  in  old  Virginia.  Here  I  had  seen  a  new  state 
driving  out  northern  enterprise,  clinging  to  barbarism,  and  a  spa 
cious  college  building  vacated  by  students,  and  only  of  value  as  the 
home  of  brutes,  enforcing  the  adage  that  "no  grass  grows  where 
the  devil  dances". 

The  journey  continued,  was  not  barren  of  incidents,  after  cross 
ing  Red  River,  the  northern  boundary  of  Texas.  Reconstruction 
had  not  perfected  society,  and  the  great  need  was  the  revival  of 
muscular  inspiration  in  the  towns.  There  came  from  every  corner 
the  ejaculation,  "The  d — n  nigger  must  work'7.  It  would  leap  to 
my  tongue,  "  Suppose  you  set  him  an  example  or  give  the  courage 
of  a  partner."  At  Sherman,  Texas,  the  military  held  a  check  on  a 
populace  mad  on  loss  of  slavery  and  belligerent  by  the  use  of  pois 
oned  whiskey.  The  country  in  nature  was  rich  and  inviting  to 
farmers,  but  with  a  drawback  in  bad  roads,  the  worst  I  had  ever 
seen.  I  paid  just  twenty-five  dollars  for  a  hack  ride  twenty-five 
miles,  from  Sherman  to  McKinney,  and  my  livery  man  had  the 
worst  of  the  bargain,  exhausting  three  teams  and  giving  the  ser 
vice  of  a  day  and  a  night,  dislodging  mud  from  the  wheels  to  make 
locomotion  possible.  It  was  my  first  experience  with  "  hog  wal 
lows7',  the  dread  of  southern  travelers.  They  consist  of  hole's 
apparently  made  by  scooping  out  the  earth  from  a  few  inches  to  a 
foot  in  depth,  leaving  no  sod  to  hold  up  a  wheel,  and  clay  soft  and 
like  paste  in  its  adhering  qualities  —  holes  and  hills  to  be  passed 
through  and  over. 

My  journey  was  at  the  wet  season,  and  seemingly  crossing  the 
swollen  and  roaring  streams  lengthwise.  At  Dallas  on  the  Trinity 
River,  the  ferry-boat  made  a  trip  of  miles  to  reach  the  high  land 
on  the  shore.  The  weariness  and  monotony  of  the  journey  by 
hacks  and  stages  southward  from  Kansas  City  for  twenty-five  days, 
was  only  relieved  by  my  escapes,  and  by  tales  of  robbery  and  the 
crossing  of  "  dead  lines ",  the  haunts  of  assassins  and  the  witness 
of  daring  defences  by  drivers,  the  voluble  historians  of  escape  and 
tragedy. 

Contracts  to  carry  mails  with  celerity  and  safety  were  not 
made.  I  could  forego  a  dinner  or  breakfast  to  jump  on  a  pony,  to 
-  get  a  view  of  a  flock  of  sheep,  and  hold  a  brief  chat  on  wool-grow- 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  393 

ing  with,  the  shepherd,  which  I  reported  to  Hon.  Henry  S.  Randall, 
of  Rochester,  the  most  able  writer  on  sheep  husbandry  of  our  time. 
His  compliments  are  not  material,  but  my  predictions  as  to  wool- 
growing  in  that  country  and  the  need  of  care  with  flocks,  have 
been  more  than  verified  in  poor  results,  due  to  lack  of  care  and  the 
delusion  that  wool  is  a  "raw  material",  which  will  not  soon  find 
an  echo  in  an  official  message  after  1888.  bearing  the  terminus 
of  the  railroad,  then  at  Byron,  one  hundred  miles  north  from  Gal- 
veston,  there  were  hours  of  ecstatic  expectation.  The  boom  of  the 
age  in  locomotion  can  only  be  appreciated  after  snail-like  move 
ments  for  weeks,  and  attendant  fears,  aches,  delays  and  night 
inhaling  of  miasma,  contrasted  with  safety  and  celerity,  inspiring 
the  sentiment  of  Saxe  —  "  Bless  me,  this  is  pleasant  riding  on  a 
rail" 

The  scream  of  the  locomotive  heard  in  the  distance  was  a 
friend's  welcome,  and  the  headlight  hurrying  in  a  race  after  it  was 
like  the  shining  of  a  good  deed  in  a  naughty  world.  It  was  a 
truthful  engineer  who  said,  I  kissed  the  steam  box,  but  I  was  not 
a  crazy  man.  Not  an  earthly  object,  so  said  the  reporter  at  din 
ner,  save  woman,  seemed  so  comely  and  lovely  in  promise  of  min 
istries  to  a  weary,  forlorn  traveler.  Houston,  a  city  of  twenty 
thousand  people,  had,  by  a  mayor  and  council,  tendered  me  a  din 
ner,  on  the  rumor  that  I  was  a  protege  of  railway  capitalists  j  not 
the  first  time  that  fictitious  heralding  has  brought  notoriety.  The 
only  incident  related  to  this  affair,  was  my  excuse  for  leaving 
before  the  last  glasses  were  drained.  I  apprised  the  mayor  that 
the  citizens  of  Grinnell  were  supporting  a  lady  teacher  in  their 
schools,  and  I  was  to  visit  her.  "I  regret  the  occasion,  but  I  do 
not  know  the  lady."  It  was  only  by  a  call  on  several  colored  driv 
ers  that  the  location  of  the  school-house  was  learned,  and  I  was 
driven  to  it.  Approaching  the  church  turned  into  a  school-house, 
I  saw  a  row  of  colored  men  leaning  against  the  building.  I  should 
not  have  known  pupils  from,  sentinels  —  many  in  faded  American 
blue  coats  —  but  for  a  book  in  hand.  They  were  voluble,  and 
rivals  in  the  service  of  introducing  the  white  man  to  "  missus ". 
An  accomplished  lady  made  me  very  welcome,  having  been  advised 
of  my  visit.  What  a  school-room,  and  how  ludicrous  the  position 
of  the  occupants  !  A  juvenile  row  of  spellers  were  toeing  the 
crack,  everyone  barefoot.  On  benches  the  pupils  were  at  full 
length.  The  elevated  pulpit  platform  was  covered  with  sleepers, 


394  REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY  YEARS. 

black,  yellow  and  dubious  sha.des,  like  mosaic  in  color.  An  apol 
ogy  was  soon  made  for  the  position  of  the  pupils  in  slumber  — 
that  after  a  walk  of  from  two  to  six  miles  to  the  school,  there  was 
weariness  which  forbade  study  without  rest.  The  success  of  these 
schools  is  a  high  tribute  to  the  teachers  from  the  North,  socially 
ostracized  by  white  people.  Eeturning  to  the  hotel,  I  recounted 
the  incidents  of  my  visit  to  the  mayor,  who  was  surprised  that  we 
were  educating  colored  people,  in  charge  of  a  lady  of  whom  he  had 
never  heard.  "  I  will  call  upon  her,"  he  said,  and  did,  to  appre 
ciate  her  service  and  lift  the  cloud  of  social  neglect.  By  hearty, 
yet  not  quite  official  recognition,  he  brightened  the  days  of  a 
stranger  engaged  in  the  good  offices  of  a  teacher,  in  the  line  of 
service  under  the  Freedman's  Bureau. 

Galveston  was  the  city  on  the  Gulf,  putting  on  the  airs  of  a 
mistress  without  a  rival  in  the  state.  It  escaped  from  the  burdens 
of  civil  war,  and  the  discouragements  which  clouded  so  many  in 
commercial  pursuits  who  were  waiting  on  northern  capital  and 
enterprise,  which,  however,  up  to  this  date  has  neither  been  appre 
ciated  nor  always  rewarded  by  fair  returns  from  liberal  invest 
ments.  The  last  days  of  April  were  most  oppressive  with  heat, 
and  a  breeze  at  night  from  the  Gulf  the  most  refreshing  cordial  I 
recall  on  many  journeys.  The  wind  was  welcome,  though  furious, 
and  the  novelty  of  the  morning  view  was  a  vessel,  full  rigged,  in 
one  of  the  main  streets,  driven  there  by  one  of  those  storms  com 
mon  on  the  Gulf.  Bolivar  Point,  by  reason  of  bad  title  or  official 
silence,  was  not  the  great  natural  sea-port,  not  even  a  rival  to  Gal 
veston,  with  deep  water  and  natural  harbor.  My  errand  of  obser 
vation,  relating  to  a  bonus  held  out  by  a  railroad  corporation,  was 
restricted,  yet  I  left  for  New  Orleans  after  a  gathering  of  facts  of 
use  to  other  parties  and  with  a  large  accumulation  of  valued 
experiences. 

MEXICO. 

It  has  been  my  fortune  to  travel  in  all  parts  of  the  western 
United  States  and  Territories,  and  to  Mexico.  To  the  land  of  the 
Montezumas  I  went  in  part  for  health,  but  chiefly  as  one  invited  to 
go  on  a  tour  of  observation.  Some  notices  of  the  social,  indus 
trial  and  agricultural  condition  there  in  1887,  with  an  estimate  of 
President  Diaz,  and  a  visit  to  Protestant  missions,  may  have  more 
than  a  personal  interest. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  395 

The  country  has  an  area  twenty  times  the  size  of  New  Eng 
land,  and  the  grand  mountain,  burning  Popocatepetl,  rising  three 
miles  with  his  white  crown,  fills  an  American  with  wonder.  My 
nearest  view  was  from  the  ancient  Chapultepec,  three  miles  from 
the  city  Plaza.  It  is  a  fortress  in  nature,  girded  by  art  and  beau 
tified  by  all  the  skill  of  arboriculture,  decked  with  memorials  of 
the  ill-fated  Maximilian,  on  whose  couch  I  leaned,  with  a  tear  for 
Carlotta,  the  ambitious  bride,  giving  room  to  the  young  wife  of 
President  Diaz.  Blessings  on  his  reign !  He  made  me  welcome 
where  he  dines  in  state,  and  I  bore  away  a  bouquet  from  the  spray 
of  the  fountains  where  Montezuma  wept  three  hundrejl  years  ago. 

The  city  is  mainly  of  adobe  buildings,  giving  little  indication  of 
such  luxurious  life  as  I  found  at  General  Frisbie's,  and  other  east 
ern-born  and  western-reared  gentlemen,  whose  fountains,  flowers 
and  paintings  are  a  reflection  of  artistic  tastes  and  generous  hospi 
tality.  The  city  is  in  a  basin  7,000  feet  above  the  sea,  but  is  to 
be  drained,  under  Colonel  Harris,  an  American  engineer,  at  an 
expense  of  millions  of  dollars.  One  can  linger  long  in  the  cathe 
dral,  the  largest  on  the  continent,  and  nearly  a  hundred  years  in 
rearing.  In  the  museum  and  art  galleries,  all  the  gods  in  stone 
have  a  place  for  money,  as  plain  as  the  channel  for  the  flow  of 
blood  from  the  "sacrificial  stone",  which,  by  tradition,  had  an 
office  for  hundreds  of  years,  and  on  which  millions  laid  their  heads 
for  sacrifice,  Mexican  painters  have  not  held  a  high  rank,  but 
there  are  traces  of  genius  on  the  walls,  and  no  doubt  't  is  an 
honest  portraiture  of  the  generals  and  presidents,  some  of  whom 
I  have  seen  in  Washington.  Juarez  has  a  strictly  Indian  face,  and 
answers  to  our  martyred  Lincoln  as  president  and  friend  of  good 
order  and  progress  ;  honest,  and  for  the  last  thirty  years  no  friend 
of  a  state  religion. 

Oh,  the  cloud  that  hung  over  Mexico  for  three  hundred  years ! 
What  slavish  toil,  blood  and  death  were  in  religious  despotism,  for 
which  so  many  millions  now  nurse  their  hate.  The  priestly  livings 
are  gone,  but  a  thousand  cathedrals  are  occupied  by  the  Catho 
lics  at  the  will  of  the  President.  Indeed,  in  rides  of  two  thou 
sand  miles,  I  estimate  the  cost  of  the  churches  more  than  that  of 
the  homes  of  the  people.  Yet  there  are  lessons  we  can  learn  from 
the  inhabitants.  They  post  your  letters  at  once  in  the  sight  of  all. 
The  car  and  hack  service  is  swifter,  prompter  and  costs  less  than 
in  the  United  States.  The  policeman  is  never,  save  by  an  alarm, 


396  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

more  than  fifty  feet  from  his  bright  lantern  in  the  center  of  each 
street  corner.  Of  drunkenness  and  violence  in  the  streets  I  saw 
none.  In  fact,  in  the  interest  of  labor  and  sobriety,  they  close  up 
the  beer-saloon  at  six  o'clock  P.  M.  Their  hand-shaking,  bowing, 
embracing,  is  not  mere  fashion,  but  the  spontaneity  of  a  race  only 
waiting  for  a  free  religion  and  an  elevating  civilization  to  take  that 
high  place  of  which  so  many  of  the  land  of  Oortez  gave  promise. 
A  new  era  dawned  with  the  introduction  of  railroads,  six  years  ago, 
and  no  passenger  has  yet  lost  his  life  in  traveling  over  them. 

I  should  have  larger  hope  for  the  Republic  could  there  be  a 
colonization  upon  the  rich,  well  watered  lands.  Hundreds  of  thou 
sands  of  acres  can  now  be  purchased  cheaply.  Then  our  better 
methods  of  labor,  rearing  stock  and  making  cloth,  would  be  a 
study  and  inspiration ;  brute  muscle  would  be  in  service  in  place 
of  slavery,  and  the  way  would  open  for  an  introduction  of  the 
Protestant  faith. 

The  best  of  American  horses  are  driven  or  ridden  in  these 
streets.  Cattle  are  seen  in  great  droves  on  the  plains,  where  new, 
fresh  blood  will  be  infused  from  the  north ;  and  Mexican  sheep, 
white  and  fat,  will  be  crossed  for  wool,  where  good  pastures  abound 
and  mutton  is  the  popular  food.  Swine  are  almost  unknown,  yet  I 
have  seen  a  fair  specimen  held  by  a  string  in  the  hands  of  a  Peon, 
while  grazing.  I  saw  fifty-seven  yoke  of  oxen  in  one  field,  at 
pronged  wood  ploughs,  drawing  by  the  horns,  yet  steel  ploughs  are 
coming.  Coal  and  iron  ore  from  Durango  are  to  meet,  that  money 
may  be  made  in  mining,  food  better  cooked,  and  a  new  civilization 
known.  Man  has  yet  to  do  his  part  among  a  people,  active, 
artistic,  brave  and  devout,  where  God  has  sent  balmy  air,  grand 
scenery,  a  soil  rich  in  producing  good  crops  of  corn  for  hundreds 
of  years,  and  the  finest  grass,  not  one  blade  in  a  thousand  used  for 
food. 

Mexico,  as  I  have  seen  it  for  1225  miles,  is  mainly  dry  and 
sterile,  yet  never  out  of  the  shadow  of  mountains  and  of  the  grand 
est  scenery  of  the  world.  The  valleys  are  rich  and  have  two  crops 
a  year.  Beans  and  corn  are  the  staple  food,  the  latter  soaked 
and  rolled  by  women  into  paste,  which  is  eaten  by  Peons — -four- 
fifths  of  the  people  ;  coffee  being  their  drink,  or  pulque,  like  milk 
and  water  in  color,  and  having,  say,  four  per  cent,  of  alcohol.  The 
laborers  live  on  less  than  seven  cents  a  day,  including  their  cheap 
soup,  sugar  and  coffee. 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  397 

The  mining  towns,  of  which  there  are  more  than  100  in  Mex 
ico,  are  full  of  life  —  street  railways,  elegant  riders  showing  off  the 
finest  of  American  horses  under  the  saddle,  and  gay  families  in  the 
glitter  of  jewels  and  rustle  of  silks,  in  great  glee,  in  coaches,  this 
city  of  Mexico  furnishing  the  climax  —  a  full  view  of  show,  gay- 
ety  and  squalor.  The  laden  donkeys  are  quite  as  numerous  as  the 
laborers  yoti  pass — all  courteous  and  civil  in  the  profusion  of 
hand-shaking. 

The  power  of  the  Church  is  broken,  and  since  Maximilian  was 
shot,  the  Catholic  usurper,  religion  has  been  free,  and  the  advances 
for  twenty  years  are  a  marvel.  Dr.  Butler,  of  the  Methodist  Epis 
copal  Church,  is  a  representative  Christian  laborer,  with  our  towns 
man,  Eev.  Samuel  F.  Graver,  with  his  accomplished  lady  and  two 
boys,  at  Queretaro,  a  city  of  40,000  people,  150  miles  north  of 
Mexico.  He  is  florid  and  stout,  and  you  may  guess  the  welcome 
by  a  noble  son  of  Iowa  College,  and  missionary  of  manly  devotion, 
to  the  only  person  from  Grinnell  greeted  at  his  home  and  foreign 
residence  for  twelve  years  !  The  Mexican  adobe  house  of  the  fam 
ily —  property  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  has  as  much 
room  as  the  elegant  residence  of  his  brother,  Charles  F.,  besides 
school-rooms  and  chapel  under  one  roof,  with  open  promenade  on 
top  and  a  court  with  trees  and  flowers  in  the  rear,  all  barricaded 
by  the  custom  of  the  country  with  bars,  heavy  locks  and  huge 
doors  —  on  two  or  three  occasions  of  service,  to  repel  fierce  and 
angry  religionists,  now  quiet,  in  sullen  toleration.  This  house  is 
not  unlike  an  hacienda — farm-house  —  barricaded,  with  port  holes, 
like  castles  and  cathedrals,  all  evidences  of  fierce  barbarisms  and 
fear  of  hostile  invasions. 

I  attended  a  chapel  meeting,  where  dogs  in  concert,  martial 
bands  in  the  street,  and  the  peal  of  loud  cathedral  bells  could 
not  drown  the  quiet  voices  of  Protestant  singing  of  Mexican  girls 
in  "Hold  the  Fort'"',  etc.,  nor  break  the  solemnity  of  a  circle  in 
prayer.  Mr.  Craver  has  some  seven  preaching  stations,  and  in 
rearing  churches  and  in  missionary  labor  has  rode  this  year  12,000 
miles.  As  I  named  rest,  and  yielding  for  a  time  to  younger 
recruits,  the  reply  was,  "No!  A  visit  would  be  pleasant,  but  this 
is  the  place  of  duty  if  separation  from  home  costs  us  tears  of 
regret.  It  is  better  to  follow  the  Master  and  die  among  these  peo 
ple,  long  degraded  and  the  victims  of  bigotry,  than  to  accept  ease 
and  refined  society  in  Iowa."  This  is  courage  and  devotion  which 


398  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

shamed  me,  and  what  amend  can  we  make  for  our  coldness  but  to 
send,  at  least,  dollars  to  cheer  the  hearts  of  the  devoted  in  this 
rude  society  where  an  American  cheer  and  vernacular  has  almost  a 
benediction. 

The  city  has  40,000  people,  street  cars,  but  not  any  more  busi 
ness  than  Grinnell  with  4,000  people.  It  takes  for  the  daily  pota 
tion  thirty  to  forty  barrels  of  pulque  (their  beer)  fiom  the  cars 
doled  out  around  the  floral-decked  Plaza  and  fountain ;  but  a  limp 
mail  boy  brings  the  letters  for  a  capital  city,  and  there  is  only  one 
bank  near  this  last  city  of  refuge  for  the  ill-fated  Maximilian — 
shot  twenty  years  ago  by  the  liberals  after  being  cut  off  from  food 
and  water,  having  impotently  declared  the  death  of  any  orator,  or 
soldier,  that  opposed  his  reign,  The  mockery  of  his  career  I  found 
in  the  Mexican  museum  —  a  carriage — the  gaudiest  of  earth,  a 
huge  bust,  and  the  Emperor  in  oil,  full  size,  on  a  blooded  steed. 

Mexico  —  beads,  bulls,  beggars,  burros  and  banquets,  have  been 
minor  studies,  all  overshadowed  by  the  country  as  God  made 
it,  in  an  air  of  balm,  soil  rich,  and  mountains  to  kiss  the  sky. 
The  best  as  the  worst  of  society  is  here  —  say  one-tenth  seeking 
power — civil  or  ecclesiastical;  another  tenth  pleasure  any  way, 
and  10,000,000  eager  for  a  bare  animal  existence,  nominally  free, 
but  bound  to  the  soil  by  the  bigotry  of  priests  and  the  poverty  of 
serfdom  —  yet  some  very  good.  But  all  are  rising  under  the  iron 
ruler  Diaz,  the  visitation  of  railways,  American  enterprise  and 
devoted  Christian  teachers  —  only  one  where  hundreds  could  work, 
perhaps  with  earlier  results  in  Christian  colonies  engaged  in  manu 
facturing  and  on  the  soil. 

I  attended  a  dinner,  in  honor  of  Americans  by  the  American 
colony  of  the  City  of  Mexico  —  a  grand  spread,  where  we  sat  three 
hours,  in  honor  of  Thanksgiving  Day,  nursing  the  loves  of  the  two 
republics.  President,  mayor,  minister  of  war,  U.  S.  Consul  Moore, 
bankers  of  Kansas  City,  generals  of  both  republics,  warmed  with 
the  flowing  cheer  and  clink  of  glasses;  yet  there  was  decorum 
without  excess,  only  less  joviality  than  at  our  annual  banquets. 
My  part  was  only  a  minor  one  at  the  feast  of  the  gods — a  toast 
and  tribute  to  the  liberality  of  Americans,  spending  one  hundred 
millions  of  money  to  reach  this  oldest  capital  of  America,  fragrant 
with  the  aroma  of  the  flowers  of  the  tropics — a  profusion  which 
recalls  the  fairy  tales  of  childhood  and  a  mirror  of  Eden,  the  gar 
den  of  the  Lord. 


REMINISCENCES  OF  FOETT  TEARS.  399 

It  is  asked,  what  of  Diaz,  the  president  ?  We  shall  look  to 
him  in  vain  for  high,. moral  restraining  force.  He  is  virtually  an 
uncrowned  king,  while  the  constitution  confers  a  ballot  for  presi 
dent.  The  June  election,  1888,  revealed  that  he  has  no  rival;  for 
the  press  has  one  voice,  re-echoed  by  the  army  of  forty  thousand, 
taken  up  by  miners  and  railway  capitalists,  favoring  even  despotic 
powers  to  avert  the  wastes  and  woes  of  anarchy.  He  manifested 
a  diplomatic  turn  in  taking  for  his  bride  the  young  daughter  of  a 
Catholic  official.  A  lawyer,  he  gained  repute  at  the  bar;  in  the 
field,  the  honors  of  a  leader  in  battle ;  and  he  drank  the  dregs  of 
want  as  a  fugitive  while  chieftains  thirsted  for  his  blood.  No 
ruler  of  our  times  has  been  taught  in  so  many  schools  of  adversity, 
and  I  confess  admiration  for  the  political  wisdom  of  an  Indian  of 
unmixed  blood.  If  plunderers  and  assassins  in  the  evening  are 
shot  at  break  of  day,  it  is  to  promote  order  and  give  that  rare  secu 
rity  to  life  and  property,  especially  railway  property,  in  Mexico 
now  enjoyed.  If  the  army  seems  large  and  costly,  it  is  an  econom 
ical  device  to  prevent  the  cost  and  waste  of  revolution,  which 
would  be  destructive  to  credit  and  to  a  wise  system  of  internal 
improvements  now  attracting  immigration,  and  soon  to  bring  coal 
and  iron  ore  together,  insuring  domestic  fabrications  for  the  miners, 
and  hardware-making,  that  there  may  be  here  more  of  the  comforts 
of  home.  His  rule  is  not  measured  by  the  area  of  an  American 
state,  for  Mexico  is  a  hundred  times  as  large  as  Massachusetts. 
A  homogeneous  people  are  not  his  subjects,  but  those  vexed 
by  European  rule,  princely  adventurers,  American  rascals  of  low 
degree  on  the  border,  chieftains  of  the  blood  of  Cortez,  and  the 
large  majority  of  natives,  only  for  thirty  years  released  from  under 
the  yoke  of  slavery.  If  he  wins  the  stranger  by  the  suavity  of  a 
real  gentleman,  he  has  a  broader  claim  to  the  regard  of  his  people 
by  the  compulsory  education  of  the  children  of  the  republic  —  a 
late  enactment  by  the  local  government  of  a  city  of  three  hundred 
thousand  people,  where  a  supreme  presidential  voice  insures  per 
sonal  safety  and  protection  to  property  equal  to  that  enjoyed  by 
us.  Of  my  other  journeys,  to  every  Western  state  and  territory  — 
once  with  a  memorable  company  to  Yellowstone  Park  and  to  see 
the  silver  spike  driven  on  completion  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Bail- 
road —  I  have  no  time  and  room  to  write. 


CHAPTER   XXV. 

Grinnell  Quarter  Centennial  Celebration — Silver  Wedding — A  Ser 
mon  on  Sermons — The  Home  Library  —  Tribute  to  a  Life's 
Companion — Money  Making — Words  to  Children  and  Grand 
children  —  Memorial  of  Faith. 

THE  first  quarter  centennial  of  the  founding  of  our  town 
occurred  in  1879.  It  was  computed  that  there  were  10,000  per 
sons  present  —  a  park  full,  cheered  by  bands  of  music,  and  the 
scream  of  locomotives.  There  were  social  feasts  which  our  people 
are  famous  for  spreading,  making  bountiful  contributions  from  the 
larder  and  farm,  and  the  best  and  rarest  fruits  from  many  lands. 

The  late  venerable  C.  F.  Clarkson,  of  Des  Moines,  gave  a  grand 
address  on  the  western  advances  in  the  last  twenty-five  years,  and 
in  special  compliment  to  a  model  town  that  has  no  timber,  coal, 
water  power,  nor  a  central  county-seat  location. 

It  became  my  office  to  draw  a  picture  of  the  changes  since  the 
surveyor's  lone  red  flag  was  planted  where  it  was  predicted  there 
never  could  be  a  city,  by  reason  of  wind  exposure  and  other  disad 
vantages.  Then  we  were  found  by  the  Indian  trails ;  now  we  are 
reached  pleasantly  riding  on  the  rail.  The  deer  in  herds,  whose 
haunts  I  disturbed  by  the  grove,  are  scattered,  and  prowling 
wolves  no  longer  howl  at  night.  Walk  about  the  brick  blocks, 
colleges  and  churches  to  discover  the  American  pirit,  content  to 
draw  from  the  earth  by  husbandry  the  luxuriant  grains  and  comely 
farm-stock.  The  wide,  unshorn  prairie  garden  has  given  place  to 
homes  of  taste  and  business  blocks,  where  tradesmen  make  facile 
exchanges  with  mechanic  and  farmer,  replenishing  stocks  from  the 
industrial  centres  of  the  nation. 

Jubilation  over  material  progress  did  not  alone  invite  the  long 
joyous  shout.  There  was  felicitation  for  intellectual  and  moral 
advancement.  The  roll-call  of  school  pupils  whose  presence  levied 
a  tax  on  parents  only,  was  ended.  A  payment  to  education  was  no 
longer  assessed  by  the  affluence  of  a  patron  in  the  number  of  chil- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  FORTY   YEARS.  401 

dren,  but  rated  by  the  acres,  stocks  and  money.  A  state  public 
school  policy  had  made  education  to  the  poor  as  free  as  air  and 
sunshine. 

Hear  and  answer !  I  said.  What  house  in  our  township  has 
gone  up  in  flame  during  the  last  twenty-five  years  ?  I  recall  none ; 
do  you  ?  No  answer.  A  college  building  was  burned  by  the  neg 
lect  of  a  student,  and  a  mill  by  fault  of  an  engineer.  Who  of  all 
our  citizens  has  occupied  the  county  poor-house  ?  I  know  of  none 
so  unfortunate.  "None!"  was  the  response.  "None  of  us  rich, 
yet  not  objects  of  public  charity." 

We  have  in  later  years  a  jail  for  suspects,  tramps  and  the 
vicious ;  but  have  one  of  our  number  looked  through  the  bars  ? 
Proud  I  am  that  I  am  oblivious  of  one  exception  —  one  who  here 
had  birth  or  domicile.  He  escaped.  "  Too  smart  to  be  caught," 
was  the  response.  Not  one  of  our  people  has  worn  the  stripes  of  a 
criminal  in  our  penitentiary.  Far  are  we  from  claiming  to  be  a 
people  without  common  passions  and  temptations.  What,  then,  is 
the  great  secret  of  exemption  from  society  ills  ?  It  is  the  inhibi 
tion  of  a  saloon,  never  tolerated  in  our  city.  Had  it  been,  I  could 
not  have  challenged  you  to  name  the  victims  of  crime.  I  should 
not  have  asked  you  to  look  at  these  homes  of  taste  and  comfort,  a 
community  strong  in  moral  affinities,  saving  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  dollars  which  dram-shop  licenses  would  have  sunken.  It  is  a 
moral  and  social  status  which  is  the  pledge  of  a  still  brighter  halo 
encircling  our  homes  when  our  semi-centennial  shall  be  observed 
by  our  children,  who,  let  us  hope,  will  not  omit  just  praise  for  the 
virtues  of  their  fathers,  acknowledging  the  Divine  hand  which  led 
them  here. 

SILVER  WEDDING. 

The  second  notable  occasion  of  home  festivity  was  a  Silver 
Wedding  celebration,  Feb.  5th,  1877.  There  was  a  spontaneous 
inpouring  of  citizens  and  friends  from  neighboring  towns  and  sev 
eral  cities,  on  special  trains,  making  an  aggregate  of  one  thousand 
guests  welcomed  at  the  Home,  of  whom  seven  hundred  partook  of 
a  banquet  at  the  new  hotel.  On  this  occasion,  Prof.  L.  F.  Parker, 
of  Iowa  City,  on  behalf  of  the  guests,  presented  the  very  numerous 
silver  and  other  gifts,  and  made  an  historical  speech ;  poems  by 
Prof.  H.  W.  Parker,  then  of  Amherst,  Mass.,  and  by  an  Iowa  Col- 


402  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEABS. 

lege  graduate,  S.  Henderson  Herrick,  Esq.,  of  Grinnell,  were  read. 
Conspicuous  among  the  gifts  was  a  Wooten's  patent  extra  grade 
desk  from  citizens  of  the  town  and  officers  and  employes  of  the 
Central  railroad,  of  which  gift  the  recipient  in  response  spoke  as  "a 
Centennial  product  and  wonder  with  one  hundred  compartments, 
that  may  serve  a  like  office  to  the  fortunate  user,  in  business  facil 
ity  and  order,  to  the  one  hundred  gates  which  gave  protection  and 
renown  to  the  city  celebrated  in  immortal  song  ". 

It  is  gratifying  that  the  fairer  of  the  two  recipients  of  this  ova 
tion  received  deserved  compliments  in  the  speeches  made,  for  her 
well  recognized  worth.  As  for  the  other,  without  recalling  to  his 
disadvantage  the  story  of  the  preacher  who  boasted  that  his  ser 
vice  cost  the  people  nothing,  and  was  answered  that  .perhaps  it 
was  worth  nothing,  the  following  volunteer  toast  from  Mr.  John 
W.  Cheshire  may  be  quoted  as  showing  that  some  gratuitous  ser 
vices  are  recognized  as  such : 

"Here  is  to  the  citizen  that  gave  a  town  for  education,  ground 
for  a  ' college-green ',  and  a  cemetery  for  the  dead;  a  preacher 
without  pay;  a  university  and  bank  president  without  salary; 
president  of  the  State  Society  of  Wool  Growers,  with  the  honors 
of  a  competitive  sheep-shearer  at  the  festival,  and  paying  the 
awards ;  of  the  State  Horticultural  Society  chief  officer,  gathering 
by  proxy  the  fruits  of  the  orchard,  securing  the  national  medal 
and  award  for  Iowa,  and  meeting  the  bills ;  a  lawyer,  waiving  fees 
to  make  settlements  and  friends  of  litigants;  lecturer  and  occa 
sional  orator,  as  a  merry  pastime ;  projector  and  president  of  rail 
roads  —  only  reward  given,  cheers,  resolutions,  and  an  occasional 
walking  cane;  spurning  combinations  to  put  him  in  the  national 
Senate,  or  a  governor's  chair ;  a  liberal  Orthodox  in  church  ;  an 
enigma  in  politics ;  a  devotee  to  pure  blood  in  animals ;  a  pardon 
able  weakness  for  the  fair  -and  a  teetotaler  in  habits.  From  silver 
goblets  on  this  silver  wedding  day,  here's  to  your  health  in  the 
cloud-distilled,  fashionable  beverage  of  Grinnell." 

% 

A    SERMON    ON    SERMONS. 

A  sermon  is  a  religious  discourse  with  an  inspired  text.  I 
have  many,  uncounted,  perhaps  equal  to  filling  the  traditional  bar 
rel.  They  will  not  find  a  mention  by  will  or  codicil.  There  are 
also  skeletons  preserved,  very  dry  bones  of  discourses  which  can 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY  TEARS.  403 

never  be  "  clothed  upon  ",  but  rather  left  unused,  like  a  last  year's 
bird  nest  scorned  by  the  robin  or  the  swallow ;  all  the  material  is 
there  for  an  incubation,  but  the  wise  bird  prefers  a  new  nest,  at 
once  sweet,  strong  and  plastic. 

To  me  all  sermons  have  value  if  the  products  of  the  preacher's 
best  thought,  and  begotten  of  an  inspiration  to  instruct  and  per 
suade  to  a  new  and  higher  life.  My  ideal  was  the  picturing  of 
Christ  as  an  exemplar,  and  enforcing  truth  by  drawing  on  the  infin 
ities  of  two  worlds  for  motives.  I  was  averse  to  the  sermon  of  a 
century  ago,  long,  turgid,  then  hortatory  by  fixed  method,  joined 
to  the  seeming  inexorable  spirit  of  a  criminal  court  judge,  pro 
nouncing  sentence.  We  have  escaped  the  penance  of  a  cold  church 
and  the  elongation  of  a  catechism  recital.  A  dictatorial  pulpit 
where  there  is  no  permission  of  debate  or  denial  is  an  affront  to  the 
pews,  if  not  an  impertinence.  Minute  exegesis  involves  as  a  rule  a 
muddle,  raising  doubts.  Where  before  there  was  credit  given  to 
King  James'  scholars  and  the  new  versions,  now  incredulity  is 
begotten  by  a  clerical  critic,  who,  instead  of  anchoring,  has  driven 
out  at  sea  on  theological  breakers. 

Party  politics  are  without  the  range  of  a  Sunday  sermon  before 
an  audience  of  diverse  opinions,  but  such  politics  do  not  monopo 
lize  great  principles.  ISTo  denial  of  political  preferences,  held  by 
the  man  after  a  minister,  is  manly,  for  he  is  never  less  than  a 
man ;  he  has  the  prerogatives  of  a  citizen.  An  essay  is  not  a  ser 
mon,  nor  is  an  exhortation  alone  the  full  measure  of  expectation 
and  demand.  Debate  with  man  or  his  theory,  as  an  antagonist,  is 
an  eclipse  of  "  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints  ".  It  involves 
pride  in  victory  and  that  ambitious  personality  which  begets  praise. 

The  sermon  of  to-day  should  reach  and  attract  the  uttermost. 
Good  people  become  auditors  from  a  sense  of  duty,  and  since  the 
great  Preacher  came  not  to  call  the  righteous  but  sinners  to  repent 
ance,  his  successors  may  be  imitators.  The  modern  model  sermon 
must  be  soul  speaking  to  soul,  not  only  through  the  voice,  but  also 
the  eye — the  window  of  the  soul  wide  open,  not  possible  in  read 
ing.  It  must  be  a  message  without  an  apology,  from  the  great 
King.  It  must  come  with  a  fervor  which  arouses  all  the  forces  by 
gesture  and  emphasis,  and  with  directness,  "thou  art  the  man", 
calling  out  the  responsive  confession,  I  am  the  man.  Abstractions 
are  not  enough,  nor  excusable,  when  the  wise  use  of  current  facts 
and  providences  can  be  made  to  intensify  religious  emotion  and 


404  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

awaken  hope.  The  falling  sands  of  the  hour-glass  are  no  longer 
the  measure  of  a  discourse.  It  is  the  quickened  pulse  of  the  cen 
tury,  the  condensing  of  decades  into  years,  which  is  the  foe  of  pro 
lix  reasoning,  and  the  friend  of  condensation.  A  mild  essence 
once  met  the  demand,  now  it  is  the  quintessence.  Dynamite  sup 
plants  powder.  Brevity  in  story,  editorial  and  preface,  becomes 
the  demands  of  the  day.  The  ideal  sermon  of  thirty  minutes  is 
extemporaneous  in  language ;  a  pendulum  of  hope  which  vibrates 
between  a  smile  and  a  tear ;  love  the  basis  of  persuasion ;  figures 
of  beauty  and  sublimity  inspired  by  the  subject;  the  solemnity  of 
an  ambassador  from  Heaven's  high  court  —  the  impersonal  sermon- 
izer  awakening,  convicting,  by  light,  power,  Divine  afflatus.  The 
greatest  result  of  a  sermon  is  the  response,  "I  will  arise  and 
go  unto  my  Father ".  A  sermon  is  a  plea,  not  doubt,  denial  or 
apology. 

Is  this  caricature  —  the  dialogue  of  the  clergyman  and  trav 
eler  ?  Says  the  minister  in  pain  and  surprise,  "  I've  lost  my  port- 
maneau".  Traveler  responds,  "I  pity  your  grief".  "Oh,"  says 
the  clergyman,  "all  my  sermons  are  in  it".  This  was  the  trav- 
'eler's  reply,  "I  pity  the  thief". 

I  recall  how,  like  a  bad  boy,  I  slept  or  smiled  from  the  old 
church  gallery,  when  a  strange  minister  read  from  leaves  dimmed 
by  age,  wanting  in  a  fresh  suggestion;  yet  not  a  sleeper,  or 
exchanging  glances  with  rude  girls  across  the  gallery,  when  the 
minister  through  his  eye  had  a  message — an  appeal,  a  sermon  for 
"to-day". 

Once,  in  after  years,  I  was  caught  without  a  note  or  a  thought 
of  a  sermon,  by  a  congregation  asking  supply  from  me,  a  stranger. 
I  resolved  to  open  the  Bible  and  lean  on  the  Inspirer  of  all  good 
sermons.  My  eye  struck  these  words  —  "Truth  shall  spring  out  of 
the  earth  and  righteousness  look  down  from  Heaven  ".  I  put  into 
use  earth  in  its  teachings,  and  the  order  of  the  planets  with  their 
rays  of  light,  glowing  and  more  refulgent  in  study,  the  mirror  of  a 
Maker,  whose  glory  is  reflected  in  his  Son,  more  attractive  than 
the  sun  of  the  universe  to  those  waiting  his  beams.  If  there  was 
a  want  of  order,  there  was  a  heartfelt  rhapsody  in  appeal  which 
did  not  tire ;  and  not  the  educated  men  alone  in  the  audience  said, 
"  Good,  you  never  want  a  line  written  ".  That  was  only  once. 

When  preaching  in  New  York  I  exchanged  with  the  late  Dr. 
Patton,  of  Hartford,  Conn.  Only  at  my  late  retiring  did  I  discover 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS.  405 

that  with  some  car  traveler  I  had  exchanged  satchels  —  no  pulpit 
suit  or  sermon,  and  I  advised  the  elder  Dr.  Patton  of  my  loss  and 
that  he  must  preach.  "  No,  no,  I  will  get  you  a  clean  collar,  and 
you  can  take  a  text  like  this—  .  .  .  ."  There  was  no  evad 
ing,  and  he  said,  "  Better  than  any  sermon  you  lost ".  The  even 
ing  audience  was  a  compliment  in  numbers  and  attention.  From  a 
heart  reservoir  I  drew,  and  they  were  not  essays,  but  living  ser 
mons  at  least. 

THE    LIBRARY. 

In  my  early  home,  so  far  from  a  library,  there  was  a  shelf  and 
that  not  loaded.  With  my  first  little  book  there  was  a  nucleus  for 
a  cherished  hope  and  ambition,  a  library.  It  was  in  my  house  plan, 
here  on  the  prairie,  and  in  the  grove  I  selected  the  best  trees  — 
black  walnut.  I  beheld  the  logs  sawed,  and  guarded  as  a  treasure 
what  came  to  be  a  room  elegant  in  finish,  and  so  ample  and  preten 
tious  that  Governor  Grimes  spoke  of  enterprise  beginning  a  town 
with  the  finest  library  room  in  the  state.  Horace  Greeley  at  my 
table,  pleading  against  the  demolition  of  the  pioneer  cottage,  and  for 
an  addition,  said,  "  You  will  never  want  a  better  room ;  far  better 
than  I  ever  owned  or  expect  to  own  ".  He,  as  a  guest,  drew  a  dia 
gram,  and  saved  me  from  the  blunder  of  building  on  a  spacious 
plan,  which  I  shall  not  forget. 

For  the  owner  of  a  library  able  to  boast  of  elegance,  allowing 
only  the  use  of  keys  and  no  removal,  there  is  respect,  but  not  the 
emotion  awakened  for  the  florist  who  is  profuse  in  bouquets  to  vis 
itors  as  the  best  gifts  of  his  heart.  My  library  had  no  guard.  To 
it  the  people  have  found  a  welcome.  It  has  been  deranged,  out  of 
order,  and  we  have  met  losses.  There  are  broken  sets  —  an  odd 
volume  of  Kitto,  a  fine  one  of  Shakespeare,  and  others  are  missing. 
True,  they  can  be  replaced,  and  the  cost  may  be  better  than  the 
denial  to  others  of  use  and  inspiration.  For  the  bibliomaniac 
there  may  be  excuse,  in  guarding  his  old  and  rare  editions,  but 
there  is  none  for  the  library  owner  who  only  wins  praise  for  the 
bindings,  and  for  the  cases.  My  esteem  for  the  gardener  with 
the  ugly  dog  at  the  gate,  and  my  regard  for  one  with  volumes 
which  he  deems  to  be  for  show,  is  on  an  equality.  He  who  said 
"  welcome "  to  his  library,  when  I  had  none,  was  a  friend  to  me 
and  my  children.  I  crave  for  them  a  library,  but  I  shall  deprecate 


406  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   TEARS. 

the  fear  of  loss  which  denies  loaning.  The  great  Father  has  made 
a  free  library  of  worlds,  to  be  the  grand  study  of  all  minds,  even 
the  humble  and  the  poor. 

MOTHER:  A  WORD  TO  MY  CHILDREN. 

The  portrait  to  be  left  out  of  "  Eeminiscences  "  is  certainly  not 
your  mother's ;  and  all  she  has  been  to  us  is  better  known  by  the 
ministries  of  thirty-eight  years  than  by  any  pen-delineation  or  por 
trait.  Of  my  early  romances  I  have  given  no  details,  but  it  is  fit 
ting  you  should  know  that  this  is  my  matured  Bible  conviction, 
"  A  prudent  wife  is  from  the  Lord  ".  While  endeavoring  to  found 
a  Congregational  Church  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  I  preached  in  the 
First  Church,  Springfield,  Mass.,  Dr.  Osgood's.  Later  I  sought  the 
aid  of  his  senior  deacon,  in  whose  home  I  was  entertained.  It  is 
truer  than  romance ;  it  was  the  woman  from  the  Lord  who  opened 
the  door  of  a  plain,  spacious,  brick  house,  in  the  shadow  of  a  cen 
tury's  growth  of  elms.  The  welcome  was  that  of  a  true  lady,  you 
can  guess.  How  little  had  I  to  do  with  this  meeting  ?  What  had 
she  who  became  your  mother  ?  Nothing.  There  are  records  of 
an  epistolary  correspondence  without  a  hiatus  or  cloud  —  an  ante 
nuptial  disproof  of  the  adage  that  "  the  course  of  true  love  never 
runs  smooth  ".  It  did  once. 

You  know  I  think  myself  to  have  been  one  of  the  most  fortu 
nate  of  mortals  in  the  family  and  the  simplicity  of  my  bride  — 
every  year  adding  a  golden  link  in  life's  charmed  chain.  All  that 
she  has  been  to  you  and  to  me  I  could  not  tell  you,  enjoying  the 
affluent  affection  of  one  who  has  made  us  all  the  happiest  of  mor 
tals,  emitting  a  fragrance  in  the  household  by  the  ministries  so 
long  a  solace.  It  is  my  testimonial  that  you  my  daughters  have 
received  from  your  mother  the  best  example  and  benedictions  of  a 
home  life,  whatever  from  him  who  can  use  no  language  flattering 
or  even  in  just  compliment  to  the  voyage  of  thirty-eight  years  of 
experiences  made  blissful.  Each  fifth  day  of  February  since  1852, 
recalls  plighted  love  which  time  ripens,  and  which  it  will  require 
an  eternity  of  years  to  unfold. 

MONEY    MAKING. 

The  writer  remembers  that  he  was  early  disgusted  with  a  sor 
did  passion  for  money,  corroding  like  a  canker;  or,  to  change  the 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOETY   YEARS.  407 

figure,  making  an  immortal  to  become  like  a  stagnant  pool,  rather 
than  a  clear  stream  from  a  charmed  reservoir  of  power,  waiting  for 
a  dispersion  to  gladden  all  around.  Wealth,  as  an  end,  is  crim 
inal,  but  gained  as  a  wayside  flower  in  a  noble  career,  it  is  to  be 
prized  for  use.  A  miser  has  a  poor  repute  in  this  world  and  will 
find  110  eulogist  in  the  next.  There  is  no  secret  in  being  rich. 
Industrious  saving,  hoarding  and  compounding  interest,  tells  the 
prosaic  story  of  a  life  closed  usually  with  a  tearless  funeral.  The 
richest  persons,  save  those  by  inheritance,  have  as  a  rule,  sacrificed 
cardinal  virtues,  and  cultivated  only  negative  virtues. 

I  could  have  been  rich  in  dollars,  adding  ciphers  on  the  right 
hand  of  my  figures.  By  lucky  purchases  and  favored  associations 
in  business,  I  might  have  been  the  envy  of  neighbors,  and  the 
recipient  of  many  thousands  annually,  requiring  for  the  last  will  a 
frequent  codicil.  With  injustice  to  no  one  I  could  have  taken  for 
my  Iowa  land  purchase  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  (from  which 
the  College  gained  several  times  that  amount) ;  that  at  compound 
interest  would  have  been,  assuming  that  I  could  otherwise  support 
myself,  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Unallured  by  public  rail 
way  enterprise,  in  the  Iowa  Central,  I  could  have  saved,  from  a 
loss,  with  interest,  of  twenty  thousand  dollars.  In  the  surrender 
of  sheep  contracts,  on  the  wool  collapse,  there -would  have  been 
twenty  thousand.  Much  in  gifts  I  could  have  withheld,  with  no 
loss  of  respectability ;  and  the  amount  saved  by  refusing  endorse 
ment  and  indulgence  to  others,  would  have  been  a  large  sum  that, 
lost,  must  be  added  to  a  retrospection  of  verdancy,  perchance  with 
an  unseemly  boast  of  kindness  that  came  by  heredity  and  not  by 
cultivation. 

If  there  are  regrets  for  incapacity  to  do  what  dollars  would 
accomplish,  there  is  a  reflection  that  I  have  not  worshipped  the 
golden  calf  which  many  of  my  cotemporaries  have  set  up  far  from 
the  echoes  of  Sinai. 

With  exceptions,  the  dolts  of  this  age  who  strike  for  money,  as 
an  arrow  goes  from  the  bow  to  the  mark,  have  large  estates.  But, 
some  inherit  thrift.  Hence,  there  is  a  related  question  —  What 
of  the  succession?  The  children  of  wide-awake  God-fearing  ances 
try  have  every  advantage  in  the  line  of  example  and  heredity.  I 
was  reminded  in  reading  the  history  of  Eoxbury,  now  a  part  of 
Boston,  that  the  rich  and  stilted  names  were  gained  in  the  royal 
line  of  a  chance  sterling  few ;  also  reminded  that  my  ancestor  on 


408  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY  TEARS. 

the  maternal  side,  John  Eliot,  could  be  mentioned  in  no  words  that 
can  be  held  extravagant  in  commemoration  of  his  virtues. 

If  these  statements  should  not  be  of  use  as  a  mollifying  oint 
ment  in  binding  up  the  wounds  of  regret,  it  is  yet  a  true  explana 
tion  of  the  fact  that  my  pioneer  work  brought  only  a  competence. 
It  is  certainly  a  solace  that  yearly  I  have  released  from  obligation 
some  unfortunate  dependants.  I  would  not  push  out  the  home 
less  ;  I  could  not  unfeelingly  make  a  levy  of  costs  for  the  poor,  nor 
use  the  courts  for  gains.  The  last  year  I  remitted  for  the  family 
of  an  old  friend  hundreds  of  dollars ;  to  parties  on  the  frontier  I 
have  relinquished  my  rights,  if  not  to  insure  the  praise  of  the 
widow  and  orphan,  yet  to  keep  a  good  conscience.  I  dare  not  say 
there  has  been  no  absolute  yielding  to  temptation  in  the  strife  for 
gain,  but  I  commend  to  all  who  come  after  me  an  avqidance  of  the 
meshes  of  the  law  plots  which  are  the  occasion  of  boast.  Thus 
am  I  a  believer  in  the  philosophy  that  only  kindness,  fair  dealing, 
even  charity  to  the  poor,  is  the  way  to  that  true  wealth  not 
attained  by  the  misers,  who  forget  the  relations  of  a  Christian 
people  in  building  up  an  elevated  society  and  cultivating  cardinal 
virtues  of  our  religion. 

So,  at  the  going  down  of  my  sun,  with  regrets  in  the  memory  of 
so  few  kindnesses,  I  can  commend  a  small  estate  gained  in  the  way 
of  Christian  citizenship  as  more  to  be  envied  than  a  great  one 
amassed  for  show,  personal  pleasure,  or  by  extortion.  The  good 
which  one  has  kept  and  that  bestowed  upon  self  may  be  loss,  and 
bring  reflections  to  embitter  the  last  hours  in  reminiscence,  while 
gifts  in  charity  and  to  churches,  and  little  regard  for  show,  furnish 
pleasure  rather  than  an  occasion  for  apology. 

THE    GRANDCHILDREN. 

Our  natural  love  for  kindred  has,  of  course,  no  virtue.  I  have 
regard,  even  a  heart  overflowing  with  affection  for  the  grandchil 
dren,  but  did  not  know  its  depths  until  this  time  of  reflection 
in  sickness.  This  moves  me  to  dictate  some  thoughts  retrospect 
ive,  and  amounting  to  convictions. 

I  have  seen  the  ups  and  downs,  individuals  rising  into  heroic 
men  though  born  in  humble  life ;  also  the  stilted  on  the  backs  of 
ancestors  of  renown,  or  rich  in  dollars  by  bequest.  I  have  seen 
pretension  and  masquerade  of  superiority,  only  clothed  in  the  rags 


REMINISCENCES    OF  FORTY   TEARS.  409 

of  fallen  royalty  with,  few  to  pity  for  the  issues  of  indolence. 
These  had  less  concern  for  the  future  than  the  animals  that  lay  in 
store  for  winter,  without  the  instincts  leading  the  fowls  of  Heaven 
to  seek  a  winter  home.  That  want  is  a  blessing,  I  do  not  say,  for 
that  is  not  the  heart's  choice  in  the  love  we  bear  to  those  who 
come  after  us.  Still,  it  is  not  romance  that  poverty  is  the  good 
angel  hovering  over  the  cradle  and  casting  a  shadow  on  our  way, 
to  be  brightened  by  toil.  Let  that  blessing  be  only  brief  on  the 
road  to  competence  and  honor.  Let  us  escape  the  delusion  that 
only  the  poor  know  what  gratitude  is,  and  that  they  only  are  the 
honest.  The  temptation  of  poverty  I  do  not  covet  for  any,  nor  a 
surfeit  of  riches  to  beget  a  denial  of  the  great  Giver  of  all ;  rather 
the  product  of  saving  in  ways  of  self-denial,  to  avert  slavish 
dependence  and  want  incident  to  poverty.  Nature's  demands  in 
perils  and  the  weakness  of  decrepit  old  age  are  realities.  Pride  is 
the  twin  beggar  of  want.  Perhaps  less  entitled  to  relief  is  pride 
than  the  victims  of  calamity.  It  is  out  of  fashion  to  save;  yet 
what  but  unreason  to  squander  earnings  or  heritage  to  become  a 
companion  of  the  sluggard,  begging  in  vain  in  harvest. 

A  great  delusion  of  the  time  is,  that  most  of  those  who  are 
envied  came  to  their  estate  of  honor  or  wealth  by  smart  trickery. 
A  student  by  deception  of  his  instructor  brought  high  markings ; 
duplicity  insured  voters ;  and  hard  bargains  great  wealth,  whereas 
it  is  a  life-lesson  that  all  out  of  line  with  probity  and  justice  is 
loss  in  the  final  result.  A  tainted  reputation  is  more  than  a 
canker  to  the  tongue  and  rust  to  money ;  from  such  a  character 
society  should  flee  as  from  a  viper  or  as  when  in  the  vicinage  of 
contagion.  A  professional  "trader",  alas,  is  the  prey  of  the 
tempter  as  a  rule.  A  place  hunter  who  must  rise  on  the  deprecia 
tion  of  rivals,  has  achieved  only  a  cheap,  brief  honor,  nothing  for 
his  children  in  the  royal  line  of  heredity.  Sleight-of-hand  perform 
ers  are  for  "  one  night  only " ;  tricky  buyers,  sharp  lawyers,  mis 
leading  courts,  enjoy  only  ephemeral  success,  becoming  a  company 
of  despised  conspirators,  savoring  of  hypocrisy  in  deeds  which  late 
repentance  can  only  extenuate — not  fully  atone  for. 

I  have  seen  the  literary  plagiarist— how  proud  until  discov 
ered;  the  doctor  famed  by  the  professed  cure  of  a  malady,  when 
the  specific  disease  was  only  a  myth ;  the  lawyer  with  the  plumes 
of  a  fraud  in  plea ;  and  shyster,  hard  even  to  impoverishing  wid 
ows  and  orphans,  rich  by  estate  settling,  with  almost  ghoulish  glee 


410  REMINISCENCES   OF  FORTY   YEARS. 

over  the  fat  pickings  of  the  dead.  Their  repute  was  a  worthless 
veneering.  They  preferred  the  false  fruit  golden  to  the  eye,  but 
ashes  to  the  taste — the  foretaste  of  dregs  from  the  cup  of  woe, 
which  I  fervently  hope  none  by  me  known  and  regarded  may 
drink ! 

Then  open  honest  gains  —  no  dagger  hidden  for  the  dark  cur 
tain  of  night,  but  becoming  what  we  wish  to  appear  on  the  road  to 
success  by  fair,  frank  ways.  Let  there  be  decoyer  for  the  fish,  a 
trap  for  a  bird,  but  never  brutality  in  use  of  strength  or  finesse  or 
fraud  in  dealing  with  rivals;  only  the  love  born  of  the  Great 
Exemplar,  and  holding  precious  the  words,  "that  mercy  I  would 
show  to  others,  show  thou  to  me ! " 

MEMORIAL    OF    HIS    FAITH. 

Mr.  Grinnell  left  for  his  children  a  dictated  expression  of  sick 
room  experience,  which  will  remain  to  them  a  precious  memorial 
of  his  faith.  In  this  he  speaks  of  the  dread  of  the  disease  which 
fastened  upon  him  and  the  final  liberty  from  fear  which  he  gained 
through  the  thought  of  how  little  he  was  suffering  in  comparison 
with  the  Saviour.  This  is  the  memorial  in  full : 

So,  my  children,  the  religious  trust  of  my  parents,  so  far  from 
being  a  delusion,  is  my  joy  and  trust.  For  you  all  I  wish  broader 
acres,  a  larger  bank  account  and  honors ;  but  the  commendation  of 
a  life  of  virtue,  mingled  with  gratitude  and  trust  in  the  great 
Father  is  worth  more  than  all.  The  garment  of  my  profession  I 
can  not  make  white.  Thoughtless  words  may  never  be  recalled, 
but  a  confiding  trust  in  my  Saviour  I  express  with  the  pleasure  of 
one  who  has  received  so  much  and  can  leave  with  cheerful  trust 
kindred,  the  church,  my  country  and  all  in  the  hands  of  that  Provi 
dence  who,  I  believe,  will  never  leave  or  forsake  his  own.  Then 
in  the  last  words,  confidingly,  the  Bible  is  our  guide,  providence  a 
study,  Christ  the  exemplar,  who  will  bring  inconceivable  joy,  even 
in  hours  of  pain ;  and  if  at  last  there  should  be  a  delusion  there 
will  be  no  regret  that  I  was  sent  forth  on  this  mission,  but  pleas 
ure,  with  a  dying  breath  to  mention  my  Saviour,  the  world's  cap 
tain,  a  physician  for  the  sick  soul  and  His  example  to  be  a  perpet 
ual  study  and  imitation.  I  know  these  may  be  mere  words,  but 
they  express  convictions ;  they  may  want  the  enforcement  of  life 
but  they  are  the  honest  thoughts  I  would  have  in  association  with 


REMINISCENCES   OF  FOBTY   YEABS.  411 

an  unworthy  life ;  and  the  only  sermon  falling  from  my  lips  for 
which  I  crave  a  remembrance  and  heed  by  those  who  shall  ever 
care  to  inquire,  "  What  did  he  do  ?  What  did  he  become  ?  And 
to  what  did  he  aspire  ?  "  Ah !  that  I  had  a  gift  of  tongue  to  leave 
a  conviction  of  what  I  feel.  Ah!  that  if  spared  days  in  the 
encounter  with  disease  I  may  give  a  new  test  of  my  loyalty  to 
Christ ;  that  it  may  be  a  reassurance  that  houses  and  lands  and  all 
earthly  goods  are  of  trivial  concern  contrasted  with  a  fitness  to 
meet  and  worship  with  the  King  of  glory  through  all  eternity. 


APPENDIX. 


THE  circumstances  of  Mr.  Grinnell's  death,  the  addresses  at  his 
funeral,  and  the  subsequent  memorial  meeting,  together  with  a  few 
testimonials  by  persons  not  present  on  these  occasions,  are  here 
appended : 

Hon.  J.  B.  Grinnell  died  last  night  at  10.30  o'clock.  The  sufferer  was  in 
a  chair  and  leaning  forward  on  a  pile  of  pillows,  apparently  sleeping  restfully. 
His  attendant,  Mr.  Newman,  said  he  was  resting  better  than  he  had  for  some  time. 
Mr.  Grinnell  awoke  and  said  he  was  free  from  pain,  speaking  in  a  firm  voice.  He 
could  not  be  induced  to  lie  down  and  died  in  his  chair.  He  was  conscious  to  the 
last.  Mr.  Grinnell  had  been  in  failing  health  for  about  two  years,  from  bronchitis 
and  asthma,  with  intervals  of  release  from  suffering,  in  which  his  energy  of  char 
acter  at  times  carried  him  beyond  his  physical  strength  and  aggravated  the 
relapses.  Professor  Jones,  of  Normal,  111.,  and  Mrs.  Grinnell  were  at  Mr.  Grin 
nell's  side  when  he  passed  away.  Mr.  Grinnell  was  fully  conscious  of  his  approach 
ing  end.  He  passed  away  without  suffering. 

Mr.  Grinnell  was  married  Feb.  2,  1852,  to  Miss  Julia  A.  Chapin,  of  Spring 
field,  Mass.  They  had  two  daughters— Mary  Chapin,  now  the  wife  of  Rev.  Dr. 
D.  O.  Mears,  of  "Worcester,  Mass.,  and  Carrie  Holmes,  now  the  wife  of  Professor 
R.  D.  Jones,  of  Normal,  111.—  Iowa  State  Register,  April  1st. 

FUNERAL    SERVICES. 

The  citizens  united  in  doing  honor  to  his  memory.  The  restless,  tireless  spirit 
of  the  city's  founder  beats  for  her  no  more.  His  soul  has  gone  to  its  reward ;  his  own 
unostentatious  spirit  of  generosity  will  live  on.  It  was  one  of  his  requests  that 
there  should  be  no  mourning  for  him  —  quite  in  keeping  with  his  public  life  —  and 
the  ordinary  symbols  of  mourning  will  be  omitted.  No  robing  in  black  at  his 
death.  He  has  gone  where  is  joy  and  comfort  and  peace. 

The  funeral  was  held  at  the  house  at  2  p.  M.,  a  small  number  being  present, 
and  all  arrangements  under  direction  of  R.  M.  Kellogg,  a  long  and  trusted  friend 
of  the  family.  The  exercises  were  brief,  consisting  only  of  a  prayer. 

Then  the  funeral  procession  took  up  its  march  to  the  church.  It  had  been 
preceded  by  Gordon  Granger  Post  G.  A.  R.,  a  very  graceful  and  appropriate  thing 
for  the  post  to  do.  Then  came  sons  of  early  settlers,  the  active  pall-bearers,  fol 
lowed  by  the  honorary  pall-bearers;  after  them  the  relatives  and  friends.  As  the 
procession  passed  down  the  church  aisle  Professor  Kimball  played  on  the  organ 


414  APPENDIX. 


Beethoven's  funeral  march.  In  appropriate  places  in  the  church  were  seated  the 
mayor  and  city  council,  officers  and  directors  of  the  various  banking  institutions, 
the  college  faculty,  trustees  and  students.  All  available  space  in  the  church  was 
occupied  by  friends,  the  city  seeming  to  have  turned  out  en  masse  to  do  honor  to 
the  memory  of  its  founder. 

Prayer  was  first  offered  by  Presiding  Elder  T.  B.  Hughes.  Rev.  J.  F.  Heilner 
announced  the  opening  hymn,  "  Shall  We  Meet  Beyond  the  River  ". 

Mr.  Tenney  then  read  a  few  selections  from  Scripture  and  proceeded  with  the 
opening  address,  giving  his  personal  impressions  of  Mr.  Grinnell's  individuality 
and  character.  Among  other  things  he  said :  First,  he  was  of  an  essentially  poetic 
temperament.  His  conception  of  things  was  not  simply  as  they  are,  but  as  they 
might  and  ought  to  be.  He  caught  the  ideal  in  every  situation  and  with  the  ardor 
of  glowing  hopefulness  set  about  attaining  it.  This  element  characterized  his 
writings  and  public  addresses.  His  thoughts,  tinged  with  poetic  glow,  rushed  out 
into  expression  sometimes  faster  than  logic  could  arrange  them  and  sometimes 
they  seemed  to  mingle  in  inextricable  confusion,  but  almost  invariably  they 
emerged  in  some  telling  climax  that  justified  all  that  had  gone  before.  There  was 
a  real  Carlylian  strength  in  his  style  when  at  his  best,  and  many  times  his  grasp  of 
the  situation  in  public  speaking,  and  the  aptness  of  his  illustrations  and  telling 
quality  of  his  humor,  gave  him  striking  oratorical  power.  This  poetical  ele 
ment  showed  itself  in  his  deeds.  Seeing  what  ought  to  be  done,  he  many  times 
attempted  what  to  cold  prudence  seemed  impossibilities,  and  his  courage  and  hope 
fulness  carried  him  through  to  successful  issues  where  a  faltering,  distrustful  man 
would  have  made  utter  failures. 

A  second  distinguishing  characteristic  was  a  large-hearted  generosity.  He 
thought  not  only  of  his  own  things  but  also  of  the  things  of  others,  yea,  many 
times  he  seemed  to  forget  about  his  own  that  he  might  think  and  care  for  others. 
This  element  made  him  a  man  of  notable  public  spirit.  He  lived  for  his  state  and 
town,  for  Iowa  College  and  his  Church.  Their  reputation  was  as  the  apple  of  his 
eye ;  their  prosperity  his  highest  earthly  ambition,  and  for  their  interests  no  per 
sonal  sacrifices  were  too  great. 

And  this  same  spirit  he  carried  out  in  his  relations  to  individuals  who  needed 
his  help.  There  is  an  unwritten  history  of  personal  helpfulness  to  multitudes  in 
his  life  which  would  prove  him  to  be  in  the  largest  measure  a  lover  of  his 
fellow-men. 

In  his  religious  thinking  he  would  be  considered  progressive  rather  than  con 
servative.  He  held  unflinchingly  to  the  grand  essentials  of  the  Christian  faith, 
but  he  was  nobly  tolerant  in  his  attitude  to  every  sincere  searcher  after  the  truth. 
He  was  ever  ready  to  welcome  the  new  light  which  was  "to  break  out  from  the 
word  ". 

In  his  personal  faith  and  hidden  religious  life  he  ripened  in  these  last  years  of 
experience,  and  evinced  a  humility  and  simple  trust  which  was  an  inspiration  to 
all  who  came  into  contact  with  him. 

He  left  for  his  children  a  dictated  expression  of  his  sick-room  experience, 
which  will  remain  to  them  a  precious  memorial  of  his  faith. 

After  Mr.  Tenney  had  closed  his  address,  Rev.  Wm.  Wright  announced  the 
second  hymn,  "  We  Shall  Meet  Bye  and  Bye." 

Professor  L.  F.  Parker,  whom  Mr.  Grinnell  had  asked  several  years  ago  to 
give  the  address  at  his  funeral,  then  gave  a  biography  of  the  deceased,  speaking 
eloquently,  tenderly  of  his  hopes  and  his  fears,  his  struggles,  his  aspirations  and 
his  successes  as  a  cultured,  refined  man  and  as  an  enterprising  citizen.  From  the 
address  we  extract  one  passage  and  the  conclusion.  "Naturally,  as  the  magnet 
draws  iron,  once  here  he  could  not  be  unseen  or  unheard.  The  first  waves  of  pop- 


APPENDIX.  415 


illation  had  flooded  in  from  the  south  and  the  southern  portion  of  the  free  states 
west  of  the  Alleghanies.  These  pioneers  were  all  along  our  rivers,  through  all  our 
groves,  brawny  men,  industrious,  hardy  and  fearless  as  Daniel  Boone,  often  more 
unfriendly  to  abolitionists  than  to  slavery  itself.  Eighteen  hundred  and  fifty-four 
was  memorable  in  Iowa  for  the  large  inflow  from  the  more  northern  and  New  Eng 
land  states,  for  the  distinct  political  issue  of  opposition  to  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
bill,  and  for  the  election  on  that  platform  of  James  "W.  Grimes  to  the  governor 
ship.  It  was  the  state  after  Mr.  GrinnelPs  own  heart.  The  beauty  of  its  ocean- 
like  prairies  was  fascinating  to  him,  but  most  fascinating  of  all  was  the  industry, 
the  intelligence  and  the  aspirations  of  its  people.  Its  possibilities  seemed  bound 
less.  Into  the  discussions  of  1854  he  dashed  as  Sheridan  flew  where  bullets  fell 
thickest.  It  was  his  introduction  to  the  state.  Thenceforward  his  name  was  a 
household  word  in  all  our  Mesopotamia,  his  colony  an  object  of  widespread  inter 
est.  His  facile  and  felicitous  speech,  quick  repartee  and  measureless  energy  were 
in  demand  in  all  campaigns,  and  his  profound  thought  was  called  for  in  official 
life.  He  was  made  state  senator  from  1856  to  1860  and  was  efficient  in  all  the  bet 
ter  legislation  of  the  time.  The  fair  historian  of  all  interests  will  be  compelled  to 
write  his  name  more  than  once  in  the  legislative  progress  of  the  time,  for  example, 
1858,  the  Iowa  school  legislation. 

****** 

Of  our  friend's  life  from  1850  to  1870  I  can  speak  with  the  perfect  assurance 
derived  from  daily  conference  and  confidence.  During  that  time  the  town 
seemed  more  than  his  lengthened  shadow.  There  is  but  slight  figure  of  speech  in 
the  statement  that  it  was  the  man  himself.  More  than  one  man  not  in  harmony 
with  his  central  purpose  was  advised  to  move  on;  those  who  remained  were 
quieted  both  churchward  and  collegeward  by  contrast  with  him. 

Wieland  once  said  of  the  German  poet  Goethe:  "Since  the  morning  I  first 
met  him  my  soul  has  been  as  full  of  Goethe  as  the  dewdrops  of  sunshine."  In 
that  elder  day  Mr.  Grinnell's  magnetic  personality  so  impressed  strangers  through 
the  state  that  he  who  took  his  hand  or  heard  his  speech  could  not  forget  him.  It 
was  natural,  then,  that  we  who  were  in  daily  contact  with  him  should  soon  learn  to 
second  all  his  thoughts,  his  plans  at  home,  and  to  make  him  on  all  occasions  our 
chief  representative  abroad. 

Those  who  have  met  him  only  in  the  late  years,  when  disease  was  sapping  his 
wonderful  vital  force  and  making  it  less  possible  for  him  to  take  an  active  share  in 
all  our  multiplying  interests,  can  scarcely  appreciate  the  universality  or  the  stimu 
lation  of  his  earlier  presence.  Those  of  that  time  will  cheerfully  accord  to  him  a 
greater  influence  toward  all  that  we  most  value  in  town  life  than  to  any  other ; 
some  of  us  would  say  more  than  to  all  others.  It  was  then  obvious  indeed  that  he 
who  would  carry  any  public  measure  must  first  secure  our  friend's  co-operation. 
Even  if  his  plan  did  not  seem  to  some  of  us  quite  the  best,  his  personal  effort 
would  certainly  make  it  the  most  feasible. 

In  church  influence  and  church  building  he  was  not  limited  to  externals.  In 
addition  to  his  early  mass  of  business  affairs  he  was  the  first  and  long  the  only  pas 
tor  in  the  town,  and  always  without  compensation.  His  preaching  was  always 
fresh,  fraternal  and  hopeful.  It  was  fresh,  for  it  had  the  tone  of  the  West  about 
it,  of  the  newest  West  that  was  growing  up  about  us.  He  talked  little  of  the  con 
dition  of  the  Jews,  more  of  the  work  of  the  early  Christians,  but  most  of  all  of  the 
things  done  and  to  be  done  there  and  then.  That  preaching  was  eminently  broth 
erly.  His  religion  and  his  expression  of  it  was  largely,  very  largely  philanthropic. 
Truth  came  to  him  as  it  has  been  said  to  reach  the  mind  of  the  late  Dr.  Goodell,  of 
St.  Louis,  from  sympathy  rather  than  by  a  painful  process  of  learning.  He  was 
humane  because  he  was  so  thoroughly  human.  He  found  duty  in  benevolence,  in 


416  APPENDIX, 

good  willing,  in  thought  and  in  practice.  His  words  impelled  to  all  generous 
kindness,  his  acts  attracted  to  it.  The  bereaved,  the  sick  and  the  unfortunate 
always  expected  to  hear  his  quick  coming  footsteps  and  were  never  disappointed 
without  imperative  reasons.  It  was  no  strange  thing  for  groceries,  a  pair  of  shoes, 
or  even  a  stove,  to  be  ordered  at  the  salesroom,  or  sent  to  those  in  want  from  his 
own  home.  With  such  preaching  in  our  pulpit  and  such  practice  out  of  it,  help 
and  self-help  was  very  easy  in  those  days  in  our  little  community. 

And  do  you  who  have  come  to  us  in  later  years  wonder  now  that  our  preacher 
was  so  influential ;  that  his  preaching  was  helpful  ?  The  preacher  seemed  to  adopt 
Pope's  maxim  in  our  community  life  and  to  assume  that  "  whatever  is  is  right". 
Complaint  on  his  lips  was  strange ;  praise  was  easy.  In  turning  to  the  future,  both 
near  and  remote,  it  was  the  radiant  side  he  saw.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  once  told 
his  congregation  that  whenever  he  wanted  to  study  the  doctrine  of  original  sin  he 
studied  them.  Whenever  our  first  pastor  wanted  to  study  the  basis  of  terrestrial 
hope  he  studied  himself.  On  that  deepest  tablet  he  found  the  one  word  "hope" 
written,  boldly  written.  He  repeated  it  to  us  in  ever  varying  phrase  and  never 
varying  confidence.  He  believed  in  us  and  in  our  future  until  we,  too,  dared  to 
believe  in  both.  His  hope  was  contagious,  victorious,  everything  vanished  before 
it.  It  filled  the  place  with  happiness  and  harmony. 

The  college  has  ever  been  the  object  of  his  highest  hope  and  of  his  most  con 
stant  effort.  It  was  in  his  New  York  plan,  in  all  arrangements  here  before  Iowa 
college  became  our  own,  in  his  successful  effort  to  try  it  here,  and  in  all  his  later 
thought.  If  the  name  of  the  givers  and  of  the  agent  who  received  the  gifts  were 
written  on  all  donations  of  the  college,  his  name  and  that  of  his  family  would  have 
no  parallel  in  library  and  cottage  and  college  building.  Blair  Hall  stands  to-day, 
and  long  may  it  stand,  the  one  great  monument  to  his  greatest  success  in  obtaining 
a  single  donation  for  a  college  building  after  the  tornado. 

The  entire  city  voices  its  memory  and  its  gratitude  to-day.  The  city  flag  at 
half  mast,  words  of  the  city  council,  the  resolutions  of  the  business  men  and  their 
closed  doors,  the  silence  in  our  school-rooms,  this  great  assembly,  and  not  least  of 
all,  the  request  of  the  "  boys  in  blue  "  to  be  permitted  to  bear  this  sleeping  dust  to 
its  final  rest,  tell  how  very  near  our  friend  came  to  the  common  weal  and  heart. 
The  soldier  never  had  a  better  friend  than  he,  the  town  cannot  have  a  nobler  ben 
efactor  than  he  who  launched  it,  trimmed  the  sails  and  so  long  held  its  helm. 

Yonder  park  may  yet  bear  some  formal  monument,  but  to  him  who  would  see 
him  completest  we  would  say,  "Behold!  the  town  itself,  Grinnell  in  its  material 
form,  its  educational  institutions,  its  moral  life."  His  face  and  his  deeds  are  pho 
tographed  on  grateful  hearts  here  and  elsewhere.  His  beneficiaries  in  ordinary 
want  and  in  the  tornado  disaster  bless  his  memory  and  some  have  welcomed  him 
on  the  other  shore.  If  we  should  utter  a  word  here  of  sympathy  with  the  kindred 
bereaved,  we  should  say  that  we  who  speak  and  we  who  are  silent  feel  most  like 
taking  our  seat  by  your  side  as  largely  the  partners  of  your  emotions.  Our  brother 
gone  would  not  have  you  wear  a  badge  of  mourning  for  him ;  he  would  not  have 
us  remember  him  with  tears  of  pain.  Privilege  and  duty  alike  demand  that  we 
should  permit  his  life  work  to  be  an  inspiration  and  his  hope  to  be  our  crown  of 
joy.  It  is  a  rich  legacy  of  joy,  it  will  remain  a  ceaseless  benefaction  to  us.  His 
sickness  was  long  and  at  times  through  agonies  worse  than  death.  He  closed  his 
eyes  at  last  under  the  clouds  and  in  the  night.  Morning  came  to  us  and  it  was 
golden  sunshine.  Light  came  to  him,  and  it  was  the  radiance  of  heaven. 

"  Beloved  dust,  farewell, 
Hail,  beloved  brother! " 

At  the  close  of  Professor  Parker's  address  Dr.  Magoun  alluded  briefly  to  his 


APPENDIX.  417 

acquaintance  and  friendship  with  Mr.  Grhmell.  He  said  it  was  in  1848  that  he 
first  met  Mr.  Grinnell.  He  was  introduced  to  him  at  Dubuque  while  a  Fourth  of 
July  celebration  was  in  progress.  He  was  at  that  time,  as  he  always  was,  a  demon 
strative,  enthusiastic  man.  He  grasped  every  situation  and  made  the  most  of  it. 
His  young  heart  was  buoyant  and  full  of  hope.  In  the  employ  of  the  American 
Tract  Society  he  was  the  most  useful  man  ever  engaged  by  that  great  truth  distrib 
uting  organization.  He  could  see  more  people  and  say  more  in  a  day  than  any 
man  he  ever  knew.  He  was  a  herald  of  light  and  truth  to  the  early  villages  of  Iowa 
and  Wisconsin.  It  was  at  that  time  and  while  riding  over  this  western  country  that 
he  first  conceived  the  idea  of  a  moral  educational  town  to  be  founded  somewhere 
on  the  open  prairies  —  a  place  that  should  be  as  a  beacon  light  for  all  far  and  near. 
It  was  some  time  until  he  met  Mr.  Grinnell  again,  but  afterward  he  saw  much 
of  him,  and  it  was  his  good  fortune  to  become  intimately  associated  with  him  in 
carrying  out  some  of  his  great  life  thoughts.  He  had  often  thought  that  in  that 
first  meeting  he  had  learned  to  know  Mr.  Grinnell  as  well  as  he  had  learned  to 
know  others  in  years  of  acquaintanceship.  The  frank,  easy,  open  and  spontaneous 
nature  of  the  man  left  nothing  hidden  after  that,  to  him,  memorable  meeting. 

After  giving  these  facts,  Dr.  Magoun  paid  a  beautiful  tribute  to  the  noble 
Christian  life  of  his  friend  and  fellow-worker.  It  was  full  of  eloquence  and 
pathos,  and  left  a  deep  impression  upon  the  audience. 

The  closing  musical  selection  was  "Gathering  Home",  soprano  solo  by  Mrs. 
Geo.  M.  Christian.  It  was  one  of  the  most  touching  things  of  the  afternoon.  The 
beautiful  words,  rendered  so  faultlessly  by  the  gifted  singer  of  the  city  of  Grin 
nell,  went  home  to  the  hearts  of  all,  and  many  eyes  were  dimmed  with  tears  as 
the  words  "  One  by  one  "  fell  from  the  singer's  lips. 

The  exercises  closed  with  prayer  by  Rev.  Mr.  Chamberlain,  of  Iowa  College. 
Hundreds,  if  not  thousands,  filed  past  the  flower-laden  casket,  and  many  lingered, 
showing  how  hard  it  was  to  part  with  one  who  through  many  years  had  endeared 
himself  to  all. 

The  warm  weather  followed  by  the  cold  spell  of  the  night  before  had  left  the 
roads  in  a  practically  impassable  condition.  It  was  thought  best  not  to  drive  the 
hearse  or  any  carriages  to  the  cemetery.  The  members  of  Gordon  Post,  G.  A.  R., 
volunteered  their  services  to  carry  the  bier  all  the  way  to  the  cemetery,  a  distance 
of  nearly  a  mile.  The  offer  was  accepted,  and  the  old  soldiers,  for  the  love  they 
bore  him  while  living,  with  bowed  heads  carried  the  burden.  Nothing  showed 
more  tenderly  the  devotion  to  the  good  man,  the  noble  pioneer  and  distinguished 
citizen  who  now  lies  buried  near  the  city  that  will  perpetuate  his  name.  —  Grin 
nell  Herald. 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES. 


The  following  Sunday  afternoon,  in  the  Congregational  Church,  was  given  to 
memorial  services  of  a  free,  spontaneous  character  in  honor  of  Mr.  Grinnell,  of 
much  more  value  in  testimony  to  him  than  any  formal  exercises.  Familiar 
speeches,  full  of  reminiscences  and  warm  tribute,  were  made  by  Rev.  T.  G.  Brain- 
erd,  Col.  S.  F.  Cooper,  H.  G.  Little,  Rev.  J.  M.  Chamberlain,  J.  P.  Lyman,  Prof. 
J.  Macy,  R.  M.  Kellogg,  Mr.  Clark  (son  of  an  early  settler),  Ex-President  G.  F. 
Magoun,  D.  D.,  Prof.  R.  D.  Jones,  Rev.  D.  O.  Mears,  D.  D.,  of  Worcester,  Rev.  H. 
M.  Tenney ;  letters  were  read  from  Ex-Governor  Larrabee  and  Mrs.  President  G. 
A.  Gates  (in  the  absence  of  her  husband  East),  and  resolutions  of  condolence  by 
the  Gordon  Granger  Post,  G.  A.  R.,  the  preamble  of  which  says  of  Mr.  Grinnell: 
"In  spirit  he  was  always  with  us  and  for  us;  the  fighting  for  the  Union  was  not 


418  APPENDIX. 

always  done  at  the  front ;  there  were  enemies  in  the  rear,  and  the  moral  conflict 
was  not  less  than  the  physical." 

TESTIMONIALS. 


Resolutions  by  the  Grinnell  Board  of  Trade,  hy  the  directors  of  the  Savings 
Bank  and  the  First  National  Bank,  and  by  the  Faculty  of  Iowa  College,  testified 
to  Mr.  Grinnell's  worth  and  pre-eminent  services ;  also  by  the  executive  commit 
tee  of  the  State  Temperance  Alliance,  of  which  he  was  a  prominent  member  and 
officer. 

In  a  published  interview,  Hon.  Charles  Aldrich,  of  Webster  City,  la.,  legislator, 
and  formerly  Chicago  editor,  said,  "  I  believe  that  he  did  more  with  voice  and  pen 
to  make  the  resources  and  advantages  of  Iowa  known  in  the  East  than  any  twenty 
other  men."  Postmaster  Brandt,  of  Des  Moines,  said,  "  He  was  a  grand  man. 
Foremost  in  every  good  work,  he  has  been  a  mighty  force  in  the  moral,  intellectual 
and  material  history  of  Iowa,  and  to  his  influence  we  owe  much  of  our  proud 
position." 

Rev.  James  L.  Hill,  D.  D.,  of  Medford,  Mass.,  editor  of  The  Golden  Age,  and 
former  student  of  Iowa  College,  wrote : 

"  Iowa's  present  greatness  did  not  happen.  Let  us  cheerfully  accord  honor  to 
whom  honor  is  due.  ...  I  remember  most  vividly  of  all  the  patriotic  meet 
ings  in  which  Mr.  Grinnell  was  the  chief  speaker  during  the  war.  Since  then  I 
have  felt  the  cradle  of  liberty  rock.  I  have  heard  the  best  American  orators  in 
Faneuil  Hall,  and  Gladstone  and  John  Bright  in  impassioned  addresses  in  parlia 
ment,  but  it  was  no  such  event  to  me  as  when  the  eager,  expectant  citizens  at 
Grinnell  came  together  in  the  church  to  give  evidence  at  the  slightest  touch  of  the 
magic  orator  of  the  depth  of  their  pent-up  emotions.  For  the  sake  of  brevity  let 
me  only  catalogue  three  out  of  many  things  I  would  like  to  number  for  which  the 
citizens  of  Grinnell  owe  their  founder  never-ending  gratitude. 

"  1.  He  honored  the  church  and  its  Sabbath  in  the  eyes  of  the  whole  commu 
nity.  It  will  be  impossible  for  me  to  forget  how  he  held  up  to  public  scorn  any 
man  in  the  colony  who  had  not  respect  enough  for  the  Lord's  Day  '  to  get  up  and 
put  on  a  clean  shirt  and  go  to  meeting '.  He  did  stand  up  manfully  for  the  decen 
cies  of  life.  He  did  create  a  sentiment  in  favor  of  respectability.  By  reason  of  his 
words  and  influence  the  hard-worked  somnolent  farmers  would  in  harvest  time 
direct  their  teams,  followed  by  playful  colts,  toward  the  village  church.  If  no  one 
else  would  preach  he  would  preach.  Our  preachers  dealt  mostly  in  '  canned  goods ' 
in  those  busy  days ;  we  thought  we  were  honored  to  have  a  sermon  preached  to  us 
that  by  its  local  allusions  had  evidently  been  inspired  by  the  occasion. 

"2.  It  was  worth  a  lifetime  to  have  given  such  testimony  to  temperance. 
Those  of  us  who,  since  graduating  at  the  college,  have  resided  in  places  that  have 
no  scruples,  even  about  license,  see  with  great  distinctness  how  far  in  advance  of 
his  time  was  the  man  who  so  many  years  ago  laid  the  foundation  of  a  prohibition 
town  in  the  remote,  unbroken  West.  His  influence  made  it  impossible  to  traffic  in 
intoxicants  upon  those  acres.  His  spirit  has  touched  thousands  who  from  that 
municipality  have  been  called  to  a  life  work  in  other  communities. 

"  3.  He  is  remembered  by  us  for  the  encouragement  he  gave  to  labor.  Some  of 
us  who  were  working  our  way  through  Iowa  College,  without  ever  receiving  a  dol 
lar  from  home,  cannot  forget  the  inspiration  of  his  words.  When  we  read  Robert 
Burns'  poem  'Is  There  For  Honest  Poverty?'  we  would  get  an  incitement  that 
only  words  from  J.  B.  Grinnell  would  surpass.  On  the  Fourth  of  July,  at  the  cele 
bration  on  the  Common,  he  would  drag  us  up  oil  the  stage  and  make  us  frightened 


APPENDIX.  419 

ycmngsters  honor  the  American  eagle.  We  for  a  few  bewildered  moments  would 
forget  how  ill-dressed  and  tanned  we  were,  and  go  home  resolving  that  we  would 
by  dint  of  study  and  practice  make  ourselves  worthy  of  the  recognition  he  had 
given  us.  Having  great  facility  of  speech  himself,  acquired  by  long  years  on  the 
platform  and  stump,  he  was  merciless  on  those  who  would  not  try. 

"  If  all  who  love  him  and  honor  him  had  been  allowed  to  follow  his  bier  the 
line  would  have  reached  the  cemetery  long  before  some  who  composed  it  had  left 
their  town.  He  was  an  unselfish  man.  He  was  a  public-spirited  man.  Currents 
that  were  set  in  motion  by  him  have  changed  the  course  of  many  a  life.  His 
imagination  was  quick,  his  sympathies  sensitive  and  strong,  his  wit  ready  and  his 
sense  of  pleasure  always  alert.  It  was  like  an  instinct  with  him  to  be  in  good 
cheer.  The  sight  of  a  multitude  would  kindle  his  whole  being.  He  had  a  great 
capacity  for  genuine  good  fellowship.  He  was  an  age  maker." 

At  the  35th  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Congregational  General  Association  of 
Iowa,  1890  (making  it  a  rule  to  attend  as  Mr.  Grimiell  did,  notwithstanding  his 
many  occupations,  and  present  on  this  occasion  though  an  invalid),  he  summed  up 
his  life  work  and  aspirations:  "  The  soil  was  consecrated  to  temperance,  education 
and  religion,  sending  forth  lights  which  we  pray  may  never  be  dimmed ;  and  may 
these  successes  be  an  augury  and  prophecy  of  the  conquest  of  our  beloved  Iowa 
for  Christ." 


§    Sign  of  sections. 


INDEX. 


Adams,  Rev.  A.  A.,  73. 

Adams,  Charles  F.,  60 

Adams,  John  Q.,  281. 

Agricultural  affairs,  307 ;  Association, 

American,  318. 

Albia  and  Knoxville,  Ry.,  299. 
Alden,  Ebenezer,  M.  D.,  342. 
Aldrich,  Charles,  §  251. 
Alger,  Mrs.  Gen.,  15. 
Allison,  William  B.,  133,  365. 
Ames,  Oakes,  137,  193,  §  338. 
Ames,  Frederick  A.,  367. 
Amistad  mutineers,  27. 
Apples,  crab,  104 ;  seeds,  104. 
Arboriculture,  320. 
Arthur,  President,  49,  237. 
Ashley,  James  M.,  152. 
Assassination  in  Powshiek  Co.,  145. 
Auburn  Theol.  Sem.,  45-6. 

Bacon,  Leonard,  and  son,  91-2. 

Bailey,  Gamaliel,  56,  61,  75,  176. 

Bailey,  Wesley,  35. 

Baker,  Gen.  N.  B.  §  254. 

Bashore,  John  L.,  144. 

Bates,  Barnabas,  58. 

Beer  and  Wine,  123. 

Beecher,  Henry  W.,  178,  §  227,  353. 

Belknap,  Gen.  W.  W.,  §  258. 

Benedict,  Aaron  and  Charles,  §  334. 

Benton,  Thomas  H.,  §  58,  195. 

Bigelow,  John,  161. 

Billings,  Frederick,  364. 

Bissell,  Frederick  E.,  121. 

Bixby,  Amos,  102. 

Black,  Attorney-Gen.,  171,  177. 

Black  Crook,  79. 

Blagden,  Rev.  Dr.,  73. 

Blame,  James  G.,  186,  231. 


Blair,  Frank  P.,  136. 

Blair,  John  I.,  136,  331,  364-5. 

Blunt,  Gen.  J.  G.,  384. 

Boston  Radicals,  71. 

Boutwell,  George  S.,  §  139. 

Bowen,  Henry  C.,  52,  180. 

Boynton,  Gen.  S.  V.,  160. 

Brewer,  Prof.  Fisk  P.,  330. 

Brainerd,  C.  H.,  201. 

Brooks,  James,  141. 

Brooks,  J.  W.,  342. 

Brooks,  Preston  S.,  81. 

Brown,  Gratz,  §  194. 

Brown,  Dr.  Jesse,  216. 

Brown,  John,  207,  §  210. 

Buck,  Prof.  S.  J.,  147,  356. 

Burlingame,  Anson  P.,  §  80. 

Burritt,  Elihu,  §  239. 

Butler,  Benjamin  F.,  of  New  York, 

85. 

Butler,  Senator,  of  S.  C.,  62. 
Byers,  Col.  S.  H.  M.,  §  251. 

Cabin,  first,  98. 
Cameron,  Senator,  150. 
Carpenter,  Gov.  C.  C.,  §  261. 
Carpet  Baggers,  157. 
Carter,  Preserve  W.,  341. 
Carter,  Pres.  Franklin,  341. 
Cass,  Lewis,  64. 
Cemetery,  Hazelwood,  106. 
Central  Ry.  of  Iowa,  300. 
Chamberlain,  Rev.  J.  M.,  234,  333, 

§  343. 

Champions  of  Freedom,  75,  233. 
Chandler,  Zachary,  140. 
Chase,  Salmon  P.,  60,  66,  173,  §  175. 
Cheshire,  John  W.,  402. 
Cherokee  Neutral  Lands,  378-379. 


422 


INDEX. 


Children,  a  Word  to,  406. 

Chittenden,  S.  B.,  367. 

Church,  first  in  Grhmell,  109;  in 
Union  village,  47-8 ;  in  Washing 
ton,  52. 

Cider-drinking,  10. 

Cinque,  Martin,  27-8. 

Civil  Service  Reform,  157-8. 

Clark,  Ezekiel,  252,  356. 

Clark,  William  P.,  216. 

Clarkson,  C.  F.,  §  240,  400. 

Clarkson,  J.  S.,  223. 

Classical  schooling,  23. 

Clay,  Henry,  §  201. 

Cochran,  Samuel  D.,  114. 

Codding,  Ichabod,  39-40. 

Coffin,  John  L.,  253. 

Colfax,  Schuyler,  139,  §  192. 

Colony  proposed,  88. 

Congress  of  1863-5,  148;  of  1865-7 
148 ;  nomination  to,  125. 

Conkling,  Roscoe,  139,  197. 

Conscience  Whigs,  69. 

Constitutional  Amendments,  150, 153, 
157. 

Cook,  Joseph,  §  243. 

Cooper,  Col.  S.  F.,  334. 

Corliss,  George  H.,  49,  §  236,  331. 

Corse,  Gen.  J.  M.,  254. 

Cox,  Samuel  S.,  142, 152. 

Craver,  J.  A.,  145. 

Craver,  Rev.  S.  F.,  397. 

Credit  Mobilier,  139,  193. 

Crocker,  Gen.  J.  M.,  §  257. 

Crow,  Prof.  J.  M.,  330. 

Curtis,  Gen.  Samuel  R.,  §  255. 

Cushing,  Caleb,  78. 

Cushman,  Rev,  Job,  §  343. 

Dairymen's  Fair,  National,  310. 
Dark  Days  at  Home,  144. 
Davis,  David,  §  196,  224. 
Davis,  Garrett,  141. 
Davis,  Jefferson,  62,  §  199,  225. 
Davis,  Henry  W.,  136. 
Dean,  Amos,  121. 
Dean,  Henry  Clay,  §  269-273, 
Decollete  dress,  13. 
Delahoyde,  John,  390. 
Dennison,  John  N.,  364. 
Depew,  Chauncey  M.,  224,  367. 
Des  Moines  in  1858,  122 ;  River  Im 
provement,  250. 


Devens,  Charles,  76. 

Dexter,  Rev.  H.  M.,  73. 

Dey,  P.  A.,  92. 

Diaz,  President,  399. 

Dillon,  Judge  J.  F.,  §  265,  301-2,  304. 

Doctor,  studying  to  be,  20. 

Dodge,  Gen.  G.  M.,  92,  §  255,  363. 

Dodge,  N.  P.,  256. 

Dodge,  Thomas  H.,  357. 

Dodge,  William  E.,  80,  85,  141,  §  337, 

360;  Mrs.  W.  E.,  348,  360. 
Donation  party,  8. 
Door-keeper  anecdote,  203. 
Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  64,  174,  202. 
Douglass,  Frederick,  71. 
Dowes,  David,  362. 
Drinking  Usages,  123. 
Dyke,  Charles  F.,  §  343. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  206. 
Ellwood  Fund,  Founder  of,  348. 
Erwin,  Cornelius  B.,  §  340. 

Fair,  Dairymen's  National,  310;  Dis 
trict,  312;  Fine-Stock  Breeders', 
314 ;  State,  1890,  319. 

Farnam,  Henry,  91. 

Farnsworth,  Deacon,  364. 

Farns worth,  Gen.  J.  F.,  152. 

Farwell,  John  V.,  357-8. 

Faville,  Oran,  120. 

Federal  Judges,  §  264. 

Fell,  Jesse  W.,  320. 

Fences,  321. 

Fessenden,  William  P.,  140. 

Fine-Stock  Breeders'  Assoc.,  314. 

Fleener  brothers,  145. 

Folsom,  Gilman,  94. 

Foote,  Henry  S.,  59,  62,  §  199. 

Foote,  Solomon,  141. 

Foster,  Stephen  S.,  76. 

Foster,  Suel,  317. 

Fourth  of  July,  1854,  105. 

Freedmen's  Bureau,  155,  164. 

Freeman  murder  trial,  179. 

Free  School  law,  120. 

Fremont,  Gen.  J.  C.,  and  wife,  174. 

Friend  of  Man,  35. 

Fugitive  Slave  law,  180. 

Funeral  of  J.  B.  Grinnell,  413. 

Galveston,  394. 

Gardner,  Capt.  C.  V.,  178. 


INDEX. 


423 


Garfield,  President  J.  A.,  §  138. 

Garrison,  "William  Lloyd,  71. 

Gates,  Pres.  G.  A.,  330. 

Gear,  Gov.  J.  W.  §  258. 

Giddings,  Joshua  R.,  69. 

Gillet,  J.  D.,  268. 

Gleason,  Pat.,  145. 

Golden  Circle,  Knights  of,  140,  144, 
147,  159,  178. 

Goodnow,  Edward  A.,  331,  §  333. 

Gough,  John  B.,  §  244. 

Gould,  Jay,  366. 

Governors  of  Iowa,  258. 

Governors'  war-meeting,  150. 

"  Go  West,  young  man,"  86-7. 

Grandchildren,  addressed,  408. 

Grant,  President  U.  S.,  169,  §  181, 
183. 

Graves,  J.  K.,  §  267. 

Greeley,  Horace,  86,  87,  158,  180,  § 
220. 

Green,  Beriah,  33-35. 

Greenback  currency,  155. 

Greenwood,  Grace,  61. 

Grimes,  Gov.  J.  W.,  195,  219,  §  258, 
342,  382. 

Grinnell  family,  1-7;  Mrs.  J.  B.,  406; 
children,  413. 

Grinnell  city,  founding  of,  84 ;  tem 
perance  proviso,  97 ;  quarter  cen 
tennial,  400;  church  in,  115. 

Grinnell  University,  325,  328. 

Grinnell,  Moses  H.,  3,  180-182. 

Guardianship  in  boyhood,  16-17. 

Haddock,  Rev.  G.  C.,  291. 

Haish,  Jacob,  334. 

Hale,  John  P.,  60,  66,  140. 

Hamilton,  H.  M.,  96. 

Hamlin,  H.,  93.  96. 

Hams,  purchase  of,  105. 

Hard  times  of  1857,  127. 

Hardy,  Alpheus,  §  237. 

Hardy,  Prof.  Arthur  S.,  §  239. 

Harlan,  James,   143,   151,   378-382,   § 

385. 

Harris,  Benj.  B.,  141,  150. 
Harrison  campaign,  1840,  21. 
Harrison,  Mayor,  358. 
Hayes,  Pres.  R.  B.,  §  138. 
Historic  church,  115. 
Hogan,  George  B.,  178. 
Holbrook,  Rev.  J.  C.,  336. 


Holmes,  William,  49. 
Holt,  Joseph,  140,  178. 
Holton,  Edward  D.,  39. 
Holyoke,  Dr.,  93,  96. 
Hopkins,  Rev.  Josiah,  7,  8,  44-5. 
Horticultural  Society,  State,  317. 
Hough  ton,  James,  326. 
Howard,  Gen.  O.  O.,  56,  151,  155. 
Howe,  Julia  Ward,  73. 
Howell,  J.  B.,  §  269. 
Hoyt,  Jonathan,  15. 
Hoxie,  H.  M.,  217. 
Hubbard,  A.  W.,  133. 
Hubbard,  Judge  N.  W.,  §  264. 
Hunnewell,  H.  H.,  364. 
Huiitington,  C.  P.,  363. 

Indians,  274 ;  national  control  of,  282. 

Ingersoll,  Eben  C.,  133. 

Ingersoll,  R.  G.,  133,  §  244,  246. 

Iowa  and  lowans,  248. 

Iowa  Band,  327. 

Iowa  College,  326 ;  first  teachers,  327 ; 

later  teachers,  330;  benefactors, 

331-348. 

Irish,  John  P.,  225. 
Irishmen,  absent,  106. 

Jesup,  Morris  K.,  321. 

Johnson,  Pres.  A.,  146,  176,  190. 

Johnson,  Reverdy,  141,  151. 

Jones,  George  W.,  202. 

Joy,  James  F.,  379-381,  §  386. 

Jug-story,  45. 

Julien,  Gedrge  W.,  60. 

Kansas  Bridge  poem,  387. 
Kasson,  John  A.,  133. 
Kasson,  Rev.  J.  H.,  108. 
Kelley,  Abby,  76. 
Kelley,  William  D.,  81. 
Kellogg,  R.  M.,  106,110. 
Kerr,  Orpheus  C.,  171. 

Lane,  Henry  S.,  81. 

Larabee,  Gov.  W.  J.,  §  262. 

Lawyer,  how  I  became  a,  128. 

Lawyers,  species  of,  130. 

Lawsuit,  first,  102. 

Leavitt,  Dr.  Joshua,  58. 

Lewis,  Rev.  John,  40. 

Library,  Home,  405. 

Lincoln,  Pres.  A.,  148,  153,  171,  173-4. 


424 


INDEX. 


Logan,  John  A.,  §  197. 
Long,  Alexander,  141, 150. 
Long  Home,  the,  99. 
Loomis,  Rev.  Samuel,  111. 
Loring,  Ellis  G.,  76. 
Love,  Judge  J.  M.,  192,  §  266. 
Lovejoy,  Owen,  133,  §  134. 
Lowe,  Gov.  R.  P.,  258. 

McClellan,  Gen.  G.  B.,  140,  159. 

McClernand,  Gen.  J.  A.,  174. 

McCrary,  G.  W.,  §  267. 

McDill,  James  W.,  §  269. 

McDougal,  Senator,  141, 151. 

Magoun,  Pres.  G.  F.,  98,  329,  335,  416. 

Mann,  Horace,  121-2. 

Manning,  Edwin,  §  345. 

Marion  College,  391. 

Martyn,  Henry  M.,  125. 

Mason,  J.  M.,  63,  218. 

Matthews,  James,  144. 

May,  Samuel  J.,  76. 

Mayor  bootblack,  383. 

Mears,  Rev.   D.   O.,   331,  351,   356; 

Mary  Grinnell,  Cottage,  333. 
Memorial  of  Faith,  410-411. 
Merrill,  J.  H.,  234,  345. 
Merrill,  Gov.  S.,  §  260,  345. 
Methodist  Pioneer,  112. 
Mexico,  374-399. 
Michel,  Reuben,  119. 
Militia  training,  12-13. 
Miller,  Justice  S.  R.,  §  264. 
Miner,  Matilda,  57. 
Missouri  colony  project,  90. 
Mitchel,  Thomas,  217. 
Money-making,  406-8. 
Moninger,  D.  M.,  §  268. 
Morgan,  Gov.  E.  D.,  178. 
Mother,  death  of,  50. 

National  Era,  56. 

Negroes,  enlistment  of,  143,  155;  in 

church,  48. 

New  Haven,  Vt.,  4  et  seq  ;  369,  et  seq. 
New  York,  first  visit  to,  23. 
Nickerson,  Thomas,  364. 
Norton,  Henry  B.,  364. 
Nourse,  Judge  C.  C.,  §  264. 
Nye,  Edgar  W.,  §  242. 

O'Connor,  Charles,  25. 
Oneida  Institute,  29-31,  38. 


Osgood,  Rev.  Samuel,  210,  214. 

Pacific  Railway  route,  59. 

Parker,  Helen  Fitch,  46. 

Parker,  Prof.  Henry  W.,  330. 

Parker,  Prof.  Leonard  F.,  327,  330,  § 
346,  414. 

Parker,  Rev.  Theodore,  §  82. 

Patterson,  Jane,  107. 

Phelps,  L.  C.  and  L.  A.,  355-6. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  §  204. 

Phrenology,  14. 

Pierce,  Pres.  Franklin,  144,  232. 

Pierce,  Lavinia,  348. 

Pierce,  Moses  H.,  364. 

Pike,  J.  L.,  161. 

Pills  vs.  blackberries,  49. 

Pomeroy,  Samuel  C.,  56. 

Poor,  Ben  Perley,  160. 

Pope,  W.  J.,  359. 

Post  Office  special  agent,  124. 

Potter,  Representative,  of  Wis.,  65. 

Pleuropneumonia,  cattle,  316. 

Plymouth  church,  361. 

Prairie  fire,  43. 

Presbyterian,  Pennsylvanian,  112. 

Press  reporters,  159. 

Price,  Hiram,  133. 

Prohibition,  amendment,  286;  nom 
ination  declined,  288;  in  Iowa, 
123 ;  results  of,  295. 

Protective  tariff,  322-4. 

Pryor,  Roger  M.,  65. 

Quarter  Centennial  of  Grinnell,  400- 

401. 
Quincy,  Edmund,  73-4. 

Radicals  of  1851,  71. 

Railroads,  297 ;  personal  relations  to, 

298 ;  Central  Iowa,  §  300. 
Rand,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  E.  D.,  347. 
Rattlesnake  sermon,  101. 
Reconstruction,  154-5, 
Red  tape,  149. 
Reed,  Rev.  J.  A.,  326-7. 
Reid,  Whitelaw,  162,  226. 
Reporters,  Press,  159. 
Richards,  Seth,  §  344. 
Richardson,  D.  N.,  252. 
Rice,  Gen.  Eliott  W.,  173. 
Rice,  Gen.  Samuel  A.,  125,  128. 
Ride,  without  spurs,  11. 


INDEX. 


425 


Ripley,  Erastus,  28. 
Robinson,  "Richelieu",  161. 
Rock  Island  Ry.,  298. 
Rogers,  Ethan,  36. 
Rouse,  Rev.  L.  C.,  111. 
Rousseau,  Gen.  L,  H.,  163,  166. 
Royce,  Supt.  R.  I.  R.  R.,  355. 
Russell,  Thomas,  73. 
Rynders,  Capt.,  72. 


Sacs  and  Foxes,  §  274. 

Sage,  Russell,  363. 

Saloon,  proviso  on  lots  sold,  286;  in 
candidate  platform,  286. 

Salter,  Rev.  William,  234. 

Saulsbury,  Willard,  143,  151. 

Saxe,  John  G.,  §  236. 

Scarritt,  Rev.  William  R.,  334. 

Schenck,  Gen.  Robert  C.,  69. 

School-house,  demolition  of,  18. 

Scott,  Anor,  100. 

Scott,  Harriet  B.,  348. 

Scott,  Gen.  Winfield,  §  199. 

Sears,  Edward  R.,  359. 

Seat  episode,  131,  148. 

Sermon,  on  serpents  and  doves,  46; 
first  in  Washington,  53 ;  on  rattle 
snakes,  101 ;  on  sermons,  402-405. 

Sharadeck  (Shadrach?),  76. 

Sheep,  washing,  10;  shearing  festi 
val,  307 ;  poem  on,  308. 

Sherman,  Gov.  B.  R.,  §  262. 

Sherman,  L.  N.,  347. 

Sherman,  Gen.  W.  T.,  229. 

Shorter  Catechism,  375-7. 

Sibley,  Hiram,  364. 

Silver  wedding,  401-2. 

Simms,  fugitive  slave,  76. 

Sioux  city,  133. 

Slater,  J.  F.,  364. 

Slidell,  John,  63. 

Smith,  Gerrit,  31-32. 

Soldier  vote,  126. 

Speakers  from  abroad,  115. 

Spring,  Rev.  Gardiner,  24. 

Stanton,  Edwin  McM.,  §  177. 

Stammerer's  prayer,  113. 

State  Register,  Iowa,  240. 

State  senator,  nomination,  118-119. 

State  University,  349. 

Steele,  Alonzo,  §  346. 

Stevens,  Mrs.  R.  D.,  348. 


Stevens,  Thaddeus,  69, 132, 148,  §  186, 

203,  276. 

Stewart,  Alvin,  32-33. 
Stone,  Mrs.  D.  P.,  339. 
Stone,  Gov.  W.  M.,  §  260. 
Stone,  Rev.  William  L.,  73. 
Story,  W.  F.,  §  242. 
Sturtevant,  Rev.  J.  M.,  114. 
Sumner,  Charles  P.,  67,  68,  78. 

Tabor,  Iowa,  85,  215,  218. 

Tappan,  Arthur  and  Lewis,  27. 

Tappan,  Rev.  Dr.,  111. 

Tariff  Policy,  322-4. 

Taylor,  Pres.  Zachary,  51. 

Teacher,  juvenile,  17. 

Temperance,  284 ;  ploughing,  285 ;  and 
Republican  party,  287  ;  address  in 
1886,  288;  and  Iowa  churches, 
291 ;  and  heredity,  292. 

Tenney,  Rev.  H.  M.,  114,  414. 

Texas  Overland  Trip,  289. 

Thayer,  Nathaniel,  342. 

Theological  study,  44-46. 

Thirty-eighth  Congress,  131. 

Thirty-ninth  Congress,  148. 

Tornado  of  1882,  351. 

Townsend,  George  A.,  160. 

Tracy,  John  F.  216. 

Trumbull,  Lyman,  140,  196. 

Trust  Funds,  350. 

Turner,  Rev.  Asa,  326,  329. 

Tuttle,  Gen.  J.  M.,  254. 

Union  Village,  N.  Y.,  47. 

Vallandigham,  Clement  L.,  147. 
Vanderbilt,  Cornelius,  senior,  25. 
Vanderbilt,  William  H.,  366-7. 
Vattel  on  erratic  nations,  282. 
Vermont  and  Vermonters,  369-377. 
Voorhees,  Daniel  W.,  141. 

Wade,  Benjamin  F.,  68,  140. 
Walker,  J.  M.,  196. 
Walker,  Dr.  Mary,  243. 
Wallace,  Gen.  Lew,  246. 
War  days  at  home,  144. 
War  Congress,  131. 
Washburn,  Elihu  B.,  182. 
Washburn,  William  B.,  182. 
Washburn  and  Moen,  363. 
Washington,  in  1850,  51;  first  Con 
gregational  Church  in,  52. 


426 


INDEX. 


Weaver,  Gen.  James  B.,  253. 
Webb,  William  H.,  85. 
Webster,  Daniel,  69,  76,  77,  203. 
Weed,  Thurlow,  180. 
West,  first  visit  to,  38. 
Wheeler,  Vice-Pres.  W.  A.,  139. 
Whiskey,  tax,  150,  155;  "For  Sail," 

285;  revenue  from,  293. 
Whitcomb,  David,  342,  364. 
White,  Horace,  161. 
White,  Stephen  V.,  361. 
Whitney,  Asa,  58. 
Whitin,  John  C.,  341. 
Whittier,  John  G.,  75. 
Wilcox,  Rev.  William  H.,  340. 
Wilkinson,  Samuel,  161. 


Williston,  J.  P.,  §  337. 
Williston,  Samuel,  §  336. 
Wilmot,  David,  59. 
Wilson,  James  F.,  §  78,  132,  167,  182. 
Winslow,  Judge  H.  S.,  144. 
Wisconsin  in  1844,  38,  41-3. 
Wolf-hunt,  44. 

Wood,  Fernando,  142,  144,  151-2. 
Woodruff,  Capt.  J.  M.,  144. 
Woodworth,  Rev.  W.  W.,  114. 
Wool-growers'  Assoc.,  307. 
Workman,  Marshal,  215. 
Wright,  Judge  G.  G.,  §  263. 

Yale  College,  28. 

Yates,  Gov.  Richard,  140. 


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